Pork & Apple Pie with Cheddar-Sage Crust Photo Credit : Hornick/Rivlin
How’s this for comfort food: Take your favorite ingredients and wrap them up in a delectable crust. It’s the basic definition of pie–something sweet or savory (or both) cooked in something starchy–and it’s a technique that has inspired cooks as long as humans have stood before a stove. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman records all document foods that meet this savory pie criterion. The word pie itself dates back to 14th-century England.
Beef & Ale Hand Pies Photo Credit : Hornick/RivlinChicken Pot Pies with Cheddar-Scallion Biscuits Photo Credit : Hornick/Rivlin
Perhaps it’s all this accumulated history that gives pie such a familiar, cozy feeling. If summer turns our thoughts to blueberry pie, and fall wouldn’t be fall without at least one slice of apple pie, then winter is certainly a time for hearty savory pies filled with meats, vegetables, and cheeses in various combinations.
Sweet Potato, Beet & Chevre Galette Photo Credit : Hornick/Rivlin
The chicken, beef, and pork pies presented here were all inspired by traditional British recipes, but we wandered father afield for our meatless offerings, with a French take on classic Greek spanikopita (made with winter greens, mushrooms, caramelized shallots, feta, and walnuts) and a New England spin on the traditional French galette, or open-faced tart, here made with sweet potatoes, beets, and local goat cheese. It’s an international lineup, but it’s as homey as can be.
Winter-Greens Pie with Mushrooms, Caramelized Onion & Feta Photo Credit : Hornick/RivlinGET THE RECIPES:
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
