Two Pies for Pi Day

I'm sure I've mentioned that Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. If you haven't heard of it, Pi Day is so called because March 14th or 3.14 is, of course, the begining of pi. This year (since it is pi month--March 2014--and we get those so rarely) I made two pies, one savory and one sweet.

For dinner, I made a cherry tomato, mozzarella, and zuchini pie. The crust was superb, with parmesan baked right into it. I think crusts are the most important part of the pie. It must, obviously, hold the pie filling properly. But it must also work with the pie. People get this with sweet pies and employ a variety of crusts but savory pies always seem to have a pâte brisée or something broadly the same but heavier (for heartier fillings). Not that these aren't lovely but sometimes it's nice to have something different. This flakey, cheesy crust certainly fit the bill. It was a bit difficult to work with (though very easy to make), which is, presumably, why the recipe called for folding it over the filling like a galette rather than trying to make a fancy edge. Anyway the more rustic look works nicely with the hearty filling and gives a good crust to filling ratio.

I rather messed up the filling. You are supposed to mix the filling with flour to thicken it (or rather so it thickens while it bakes) but I forgot. Luckily it hit me just after I put it in the oven, so I pulled it out and mixed in the flour the best I could without destroying the folded over crust. It probably didn't work quite as well as it could have, and I think the filling was slighly liquidier than it could have been, but it was still delicious! I love whole tomatoes and large pieces of zuchini, it was nicer than a chopped or pureed filling and was much heartier. Plus you could taste the flavors as distinct to each other.

I loved the tomato with the mozzarella (and parmesan, which was in the crust and the filling). Next time I might just leave out the zuchini (not that I don't enjoy zuchini) and add some fresh basil--sort of caprese style.

We finished off the meal with a quasi-Mississippi mud pie. I suppose it wasn't quite a Mississippi mud pie as much as it was a chocolate cream pie. Regardless, it was delicious. It was a graham cracker crust (I admit it, it was storebought...I was making two pies virtually from scratch, so I cheated and bought a keebler graham cracker crust, sue me) filled with homemade chocolate pudding. (I do love homemade pudding. It's actually quite easy to make and you'll never want to eat the storebought stuff again.) The pudding was topped with fresh, coffee flavored whipped cream and toasted pecans.

It was a bit messy (I probably should have let the pudding chill a bit longer and the storebought crust was a bit fragile), but really, who cares?!

By the way, Martha Stewart suggests coating the graham cracker crust with melted chocolate so that the pudding doesn't make the crust soggy. It worked quite nicely (the leftover pie did last quite nicely--though it didn't last very long. Yum.)

By the way, with Purim the day after Pi Day, and grad school ongoing, I've been behind with my posting. I know this one is really on the late side, my apologies!