Pizza Rustica

Made this into a calzone, using whole wheat pizza dough (30 minutes on 450 on pre-heated pizza stone). Served with marinara sauce. Filling was good, made exactly as directed. Will leave out the peppers next time, didn't think they added much to the texture or flavor. Caution, this recipe is time consuming!

This is a yummy one that's meatless too! I skip a lot of steps by using refrigerated dough and a jar of roasted red bell peppers. I also use chopped kale instead of the chard. Saves a lot of time on a busy week night!

Having recently struggled through another Cooking Light recipe with a very similar crust, I saved myself some trouble by adding a splash of vodka to the crust after taking it out of the food processor. This makes it easier to work with but doesn't change the flavor or texture of the finished crust. Like other reviewers I noticed that you have to roll the crust out pretty thin to fill a pie plate, I'm assuming they intend it that way to save on calories since it is supposed to be a "light" recipe. I didn't think it was that much trouble to prepare. I used presliced mushrooms so that saved me a lot of prep time. I also suspect you could substitute frozen spinach (defrosted with the liquid pressed out) for the chard if you wanted to save more time. Overall I thought this was delicious for a weekend dinner and I liked that it has a pretty good amount of protein per serving for a vegetarian recipe.

Very very good! Only giving it four because it did take quite awhile to make. I didn't seem to have a problem with the crust, in fact I'm looking forward to making more of the crust and maybe even freezing some for quick use. I was a little confused about not using chilled/iced water, but somehow it worked. Maybe the kitchen gods smiled upon me. I stopped it just short of forming a ball in the food processor, when it was starting to clump a stockpile but most of it was still crumb. Once I took it out of the food processor, it was the easiest dough I've ever kneaded because it didn't stick to my hands at all. In fact, I was worried that I did something wrong, like not adding enough flour, but I had used five 1/3 cup light scoops and then used the same measurer for the olive oil. I'd say it was worth it, but I haven't made many non-dessert pastry doughs. If you have a go to, then go to it and eat this right now. Your tummy and taste buds will love you.

I used my favorite pie crust recipe so didn't have the problem that many other reviewers experienced. I do agree that it was a lot of work to roast the red peppers and wash/chop a pound of Swiss chard and a pound of mushrooms. But my biggest complaint is that the combination of cheese and eggs had a slightly curdled texture in the final product. My pie looked exactly like the picture in Cooking Light, including the filling, so I suspect it's the recipe and not user error. I enjoyed it but don't feel the need to make it again. Note that the recipe makes enough filling for a DEEP-DISH pie pan.

I'd agree with the other comments. This recipe is delicious, but very time consuming. It's good for special occasions and perhaps for bringing as a vegetarian dish to a dinner party, but due to the time involved, it's probably not good for regular preparing. Also, I thought the crust recipe was awful. I was initially skeptical due to the recipe calling for olive oil and un-iced water (something I've never seen in a crust recipe). After trying to work with the dough for a considerable amount of time, I scrapped it and picked up the recipe the next day using an old crust recipe. I'd really recommend using a more traditional crust recipe (any involving roughly 2 1/2 cups of flour, butter or shortening, and ice water will do the trick). The result may be a tad more unhealthy, but you won't want to murder someone trying to work with the dough.

I thought this was quite tasty and impressive to look at too. However, I don't know if it was good enough that I would make it again as it was very labor intensive. I followed the recipe exactly and didn't have any problems. The dough was very crumbly in the food processor and never formed a ball, so I took it out and kneaded it into a ball. I didn't have to add more flour (which I initially measured by weight). I was able to cover a 9" pie plate, but just barely.

This is now one of my favorites! I used refridgerated pie crust to save time, and subbed Swiss for fontina to save money. Fabulous!!!!!

This was good, but not outstanding, especially given how time intensive it was. But although a not a vegetarian, I like to try to eat a meatless dish each week, and this one was chock full of nutritional green goodness. I initially had difficulty with the crust - it was so dry I couldn't knead it; once I added a significant amount of water (at least a 1/4c), it was much easier to work it, and I had no problem rolling it out to 11", although it wasn't very flaky. I did 1/3 swiss chard, 1/3 spinach, 1/3 kale, which was nice. You could definitely add some ground beef or turkey if you wanted a meat dish.

The filling for this is excellent. The thinly sliced chard clumps together and makes cutting difficult -- I would recommend chopping the chard instead. The serious draw back for me is the crust. I followed the crust directions as written, but I was barely able to roll it thin enough to cover a 9 inch pie plate, never mind having enough to press the top and bottom edges together. In the future, I would either use my standard pie crust recipe, increase the printed directions by at least 1.5, or use the filling to make calzones.