Here I am with a new recipe: the Christmas Tree Savory Pie with speck, cherry tomatoes, and olives! Is it an Appetizer, an Aperitif, or a Main Course? Well, I’m not sure, you decide! Keep in mind that it’s already a hearty dish, so pair it with something lighter if you serve this recipe as an appetizer or aperitif. As a Christmas main course, it’s perfect because you’ll have already served appetizers and first courses. And remember, there’s always room for dessert during the Christmas Holidays!
As every year, I’m ready with new Christmas recipes to share with you. Let’s start with a nice Savory Pie in a Christmas Tree mold. I chose to use speck in the dough phase, then added some yellow and red cherry tomatoes to create the “Christmas balls” effect and the green olives that I love, adding extra color and flavor to this savory pie.
I’ve also made a video recipe for you to follow step by step, making it feel like you’re preparing this Christmas savory pie with me in my kitchen. Last Christmas, I made Savory Christmas Trees with sandwich bread, and two years ago, I made the Sweet Christmas Tree Danube filled with jam. So, I thought: what can I prepare as a New Christmas Recipe for this year? The answer was simple and quick: a savory Christmas Tree mold recipe was missing! That’s how I came up with this Christmas Tree-shaped savory pie recipe with speck, yellow and red cherry tomatoes, and green olives used as both the trunk and the balls.
Before moving on to the recipe, I’ll leave you some links below for other Christmas recipes you can find on my cooking blog. From the Savory Christmas Trees we just talked about, to breakfast with Christmas French Toast with Panettone, the must-have cookies during the Holidays, in this case, I suggested them with cinnamon and without butter in many different shapes. Then, there are desserts, also in this case with a tree-shaped mold, using rice flour. Finally, I’ll gift you an entire Practical and Quick Christmas Menu you can prepare and serve for many informal occasions with friends or with your family.
Remember that I’ll be waiting for you every morning in the group and on the Facebook fan page with the Recipe of the Day. A must-have rendezvous of my day in the kitchen to greet all of you who are here every day to read my recipes!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 8 People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: New Year, Christmas
- Energy 493.43 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 43.36 (g) of which sugars 3.46 (g)
- Proteins 16.40 (g)
- Fat 29.56 (g) of which saturated 7.28 (g)of which unsaturated 20.79 (g)
- Fibers 1.66 (g)
- Sodium 580.85 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 125 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for a Christmas Tree Savory Pie with speck, cherry tomatoes, and olives mold
- 12.35 oz all-purpose flour
- 1.76 oz potato starch
- 1 packet instant yeast for savory gluten-free preparations
- 3.53 oz speck (PGI cut into strips not too thin)
- 15 cherry tomatoes (both yellow and red)
- 15 green olives
- 4 eggs
- 3.53 oz cheese (grated type to your taste)
- 1 pinch salt
- to taste chopped parsley
- to taste oregano
- 1 glass milk
- 1 glass seed oil
I chose not to add pepper in this recipe because the speck is already flavored by the aging process and I didn’t want to make this note too strong. Moreover, I had my Paciccio over for lunch the following day who cannot eat pepper or chili so I didn’t add it to the list of used ingredients. However, if you like it and want to use it, feel free to do so.
Tools to prepare the Christmas Tree Savory Pie with speck, cherry tomatoes, and green olives
- 1 Mold
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Electric whisk
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Kitchen scale
- 1 Spoon
- 2 Glasses
- 1 Brush
- 1 Oven
Steps for the Christmas Tree Savory Pie Recipe with speck, cherry tomatoes, and green olives
Let’s start by preparing on the work surface all the ingredients we’ll use for this recipe. Weigh the flour and potato starch and sift them. Take the eggs, which should be at room temperature; if you keep them in the refrigerator, place them on the kitchen counter at least 3 hours before. Pour the liquids into the glasses, those typical table ones that are usually 5 oz.
Prepare the tools as well, so the electric whisks, the bowl, the spatula, the small bowl with brush for greasing the mold, the Christmas Tree mold, and a spoon. I’ve provided a link to purchase (here) the mold if you can’t find it in stationery stores. We are ready to begin.
Preheat the oven in static mode to 338 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the rack or the pan on which we’ll place the savory pie with speck and cherry tomatoes in the center of the oven.
Break the four eggs into the bowl, add a pinch of salt, turn on the whisks and work for about 5 minutes. They should become nice and frothy. Then add the glass of milk without turning off the electric whisks. Then we’ll add the glass of oil while continuing to work the batter.
Now it’s time for the grated cheese, the entire dose should be added to the batter at once. Sprinkle with dried parsley and oregano, if you like them, otherwise choose a herb to your taste. If you want to add pepper to this recipe, this is the time to do it.
We can then proceed with adding the flours, the yeast for savory pies, and the other ingredients. Add the flours, sifting them, mind you, this is very important for the successful outcome of the savory pie. Both for its texture and its baking in the oven. Take your time because it’s definitely worth it.
In the video recipe, you can see how beautiful the texture of the eggs is and especially the resistance they put up when I sift in the bowl the flour, potato starch, and the packet of yeast for savory pies. That nice little mound that forms is because there is the right amount of air in the egg foam providing resistance to the solidity of the flour.
Work with the whisks until the batter allows it. Then, of course, we’ll switch to the spatula that will allow us to work the batter more easily now that the texture has changed. We are then ready to add the previously cut IGP speck into strips not too thin. Its consistency in the savoury pie should be felt and appreciated bite after bite. Set aside for a couple of minutes because we need to grease the mold before pouring the savoury pie batter.
Take a small bowl and pour some seed oil into it. With a kitchen brush, grease the base and the walls of the Christmas Tree mold thoroughly and gently. Then place the mold in a baking pan; I trust it more because if I leave it on the grate, I’m afraid it might leak liquids and thus dirty the oven, requiring cleaning afterward. Also, when I have to remove it from the oven, since it will be hot, I wouldn’t be able to handle it well and could break the Savory Christmas Tree.
Now pour the batter into the mold, level the surface, and place here and there the Christmas balls, i.e., the ingredients we’ve chosen, in my case yellow and red cherry tomatoes and green olives. Try to give a logical order to the distribution, both at the corners and at the base and here and there in the center, so there are no undecorated spots. If you want, you can add a seed mix as a final decoration. Bake in the center of the oven at 338 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 50 minutes. Always do the toothpick test before turning off and removing the cake or the savoury pie as in this case.
Let it cool on the kitchen counter for a few minutes before serving the Christmas Tree Savory Pie with speck and yellow and red cherry tomatoes to our friends, guests, or family. You can store the leftover savory pie in a cake holder with a lid for a couple of days. Or place it in the refrigerator and heat it later in a small oven or microwave before serving it again at the table.
At this point, all that’s left is to wish you a good appetite and remind you that I’ll be waiting for you every day here on my blog with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one.
Tips and variations:
Tips I’ve already written several throughout the recipe text, but I want to emphasize not to raise the oven temperature. It won’t help the baking nor speed it up; in fact, it might only ruin the Christmas Tree Savory Pie we’re preparing.
Variations: from the choice of “balls” for decoration, you can get creative with black olives, red, yellow, or black tomatoes. Then maybe add discs of carrot, sausages cut into chunks, slightly blanched peas, or a seed mix to make it even more appealing.
