The fourth of our less-known and more tempting typical Italian recipes is centered around escarole, an endive-variant from Asia Minor particularly appreciated in Center and Southern Italy.

In terms of food, Italian festivities are really tempting, with countless typical Italian recipes to choose from: there’s plenty of everything, from appetizers to desserts.

The escarole pie, a speciality of the Campania region in Southern Italy, has many variants based on the cities where it is made.
Our proposal this week is the escarole pie recipe made by “Nonna Renata”, typical of the tradition of Caserta with Roman influences, where our granny spent most of her life.

At granny’s home, a melting pot of typical Italian recipes and delicacies, the escarole pie was served on Christmas Eve at lunch.

Escarole, olives and capers

Photo: Blog Giallo Zafferano

Let’s prepare together one of the typical Italian recipes among Southern Italian families for Christmas.

• After washing and cutting the escarole, cook it in a large pan with oil, garlic, a pinch of salt and red chili pepper, as you like.
  Meanwhile,  pit the olives, chop them up with the anchovy fillets, and add grated Pecorino cheese (Roman influence) and the desalted capers.

• When the escarole is ready, turn off the heat, add the mix of olives, anchovies, Pecorino cheese and capers.
  Split the pizza dough in two pieces, a bigger one and a smaller one.
  Stretch out the bigger piece on a baking tray greased with lard, fill it with the escarole, strech out the rest of the dough, use it to cover the escarole and seal the edges adding some water.

• Grease the surface with a good amount of lard and bake the pie in the oven, preheated to 200 °C/390 ° F for an hour, until the surface is brown and crispy.

Speaking of Italian recipes, ever tried the cocoa and hazelnut crucchi? Check the recipe in this post of our blog!

Photo: Buonissimo.it
Recipe: Nonna Renata, passed down to Anna Suadoni