When you have leftover ingredients from previous preparations, one way to use them is to make a savory pie that, depending on the quantity and type of ingredients, can become a rich and tasty main dish. This is the case, in fact, with our savory pie with rice and bell peppers, a homemade shortcrust pastry shell, filled with rice and bell peppers in the basic version, but which we can enrich as we like. This type of savory pie can be served either hot or cold for lunch, dinner, at a buffet, or during leisure time.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer, Spring, Autumn
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsps very cold butter (also lactose-free)
- 1 medium whole egg
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1 cup risotto rice
- 2 bell peppers
- 1 zucchini
- 5 oz melting cheese
- to taste salt and pepper
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
Tools
- 1 Baking Pan 12-inch round
Preparation
Wash and cut the bell peppers into pieces, after removing the seeds and white filaments.
I also had a zucchini that I added to the filling, after washing it, removing the waste parts, and cutting it into small cubes.
Boil some water. When it comes to a boil, add salt, bring it back to a boil, and add the bell pepper pieces (and zucchini, in my case). Cover and let them cook for exactly 4 minutes.
Drain the vegetables (without discarding the water) and put them in a large bowl to cool.
Bring the water back to a boil and add the rice, cover, lower the heat, and let it cook until al dente.
In the meantime, cut the cheese into cubes and add it to the bell peppers.
When the rice is ready, drain it well and add it to the bell peppers in the bowl.
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (without overdoing it), adjust the salt, mix, and let it rest while preparing the dough for our savory pie.
All the ingredients for the dough, including the bowl, must be very cold.
In a mixer or a bowl, sift the flour, add salt, freshly ground pepper, butter pieces, the egg, and half of the water.
Mix roughly and quickly to avoid heating the butter. Only when needed, add a teaspoon at a time of the remaining water to prevent a mushy dough. It should be a soft, elastic, and compact dough.
Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, well covered with plastic wrap, to relax the gluten and firm up the butter. After 30 minutes, roll out the dough thinly (according to need) with a rolling pin on a floured work surface.
Preheat the oven to 392°F.
Line the tart pan with parchment paper, flour the dough, and roll it around the rolling pin; this way, it will be easy to transfer it to the pan.
Adjust it, trim the edges, and fill it with the filling. Bake at mid-height for about 25 minutes.
If your oven bakes both top and bottom simultaneously, it will be necessary to cover the savory pie with a sheet of aluminum foil. This will prevent the top of the pie from burning and the rice from drying out too much, becoming inedible. Remove the aluminum foil during the last 5 minutes of baking.
Before removing it from the mold and cutting it, the savory pie with rice and bell peppers should cool down, to avoid breaking.
Extra Idea. This delicious savory pie with rice and bell peppers can also be made with gluten-free flours (gluten-free all-purpose mix or rice flour). In this case too, I recommend adding the water little by little, to avoid ending up with an excessively soft, sticky, and unmanageable dough.
