Adapted from Mark Bittman’s recipe in his book Leafy Greens (New York: Macmillan, 1995), this quick, easy pie uses an olive-oil crust, which comes together quickly and easily. Add a generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper to give the pastry a special zip. Substitute other greens such as spinach or escarole.
Ingredients
2 pounds Swiss chard
2 cups flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
cold water as needed
2 eggs
1 small onion, peeled and minced
1/2 cup sweet or hot diced cappicola or ham
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Parboil the chard: Plunge it into a large pot of boiling water, push it under the surface with a spoon, and drain. Run it under cold water to chill, squeeze it dry, and chop coarsely.
Combine the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and a generous amount of black pepper in a bowl; with a fork stir in the olive oil until well blended. Add the water a few drops at a time until you can gather the dough into a ball. Cut the dough in half. Roll out half the dough and place it in a greased 9-inch pie pan.
Mix together the chopped chard, eggs, onion, cappicola, and cheese and spread evenly over the rolled-out crust. Roll out the other half of the dough and top the pie with it; crimp the edges and trim off excess dough. Vent the top crust with scissors and bake 40 minutes or until nicely browned.
