My Families Traditional Easter Pies

This story and recipe appears in my book, Mangia with Micheline. I thought I would share it for Easter

During the Easter season, it is a tradition for Italians to make Rice Pie and Ricotta Pie and for the last 30 or so years I have baked many. I learned to cook and bake prior to reaching my teenage years, but I was in my twenties before I attempted a pie. The pie crust looked really scary to make! I still remember my first venture into pie making. It was Easter; Sal was working for the Warwick Police department and telling his co-workers about Italian rice pie. Many of the police officers never tasted a rice pie. Wasn’t rice something that you fried, boiled and served with meat and vegetables…but in a pie?!

So before you knew it, Sal had volunteered me to make some pies to take into work. Of course, he failed to ask me if I could even make a pie! I was in a panic; I had never even attempted to make a piecrust, let alone a pie. However, I did have an ace in the hole, as my mother makes a great piecrust and had the recipe for the rice pie. I had a plan! I called my mother figuring I could get her to make the pies and I would get the credit. However, my mother had another idea. She would coach me on how to make the crust, but I would make it alone! 

So that day, I made 2 rice and 2 ricotta pies and, in the process, I learned how to make a flaky piecrust. My mother always used the recipe that she found on a can of Crisco to make crust. Whenever she made a rice, ricotta, or custard pie, she would substitute cold milk for the water in the recipe. I am including the piecrust chart (see Appendix for chart) as well as both recipes for my family’s traditional rice and ricotta pie. I use the butter-flavored Crisco when I make my crust. Both pies have only a single crust.

Italian Rice Pie

2 cups of cooked rice
1 cup of eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped cherries

Preheat oven to 375°

Beat eggs with sugar, add all other ingredients and mix well. Pour into a prepared 10” unbaked pie crust. The filling comes up to the edge of the crust so I make a collar of foil around the pie to prevent the filling from spilling over. Bake the pie at 375° for 50 to 60 minutes. Note: I will also towards the end of the baking sprinkle chocolate jimmies on the top of the pie.

Ricotta Pie
1 1/2 lbs. ricotta cheese
3 teaspoon Cornstarch
3 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°

Blend all the ingredients together and pour into an unbaked 9” piecrust. Bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes.

Note: I sometimes use a teaspoon of Kahlua or coffee flavored liquor in addition to the vanilla.

Enjoy! Please like and leave comments.