EPIC Italian Easter Pie | The Original "Pizzagaina" Recipe

I am from New Jersey and although I am not Italian, I know this dish. I know it as "Pizza-gain" or "Italian Easter Pie". It's soooo good! (if you eat meat)

When I was the accountant for the bus company I worked with a bunch of fellow Italian Americans who made this for Easter. Surprisingly, it was one dish my mom didn't make, so I got to be the judge for the pizzagaina wars. They were all good, from the rustica versions like Eva made to the light airy ricotta pies. I didn't settle the disputes... just kept sampling them all. Buona Pasqua!

oh, ah . you have an italian maidd. ok go on.

The reason Italians eat so much eggs at Easter is because sometimes Italians fast from eggs and other meat for Lent. Then at the end of Lent you have many extra eggs and look forward to eating eggs again.

You maka me fat!

We made this and also the wheat pie and rice too.. Good memories

It's the first time in my life I've heard a human being utter the words "You know lard makes everything better" : D

We called it Pizza Rustica

You can use non boil lasagna noodles or boil and add a small amount of olive oil,layer bottom with some over lap add filling and use the overlapping lasagna noodles and extra on top,cut slits like a pie and bake.Hopefully this will help with your fear of cooking bread and is a time saver.Put in a lined cheesecake pan.

Harper you are Blessed and Touched bye the Angles of Christ though your beautiful Wife EVA! Please take good care of her!

Italians in my family always cut off the A in many words Mozzarell not Mozzarella. Pizzagin (g pronounced like go) not Pizzagaina

I'd say in English full pizza or stuffed pizza as you said

My grandma makes that we call it meat pie it’s pretty much the same thing but instead of mixing it together she does layers

Seems like a version of a pot pie or deep dish pizza. Amazing and delicious!

My grandma, Santa Maria, from Cosenza, used to make a round loaf of bread stuffed with her homemade sausage onions and Swiss chard. Have you ever heard of this? The bread looked like a round loaf not like a crust, until it was cut open It was so delicious. I just wish I knew how she made it. That was in 1960’s when I was a little kid.

Looks beautiful!

Lucky young couple to have each other!

Yes, Harper,rustica means rustic or rural

Love ricotta salata! Haven't had it in years

I am Neapolitan and I do make my Pizza Chiena with ricotta. Yours looked amazing. I would love to get your recipe for pastera also. Thank you, Eva., thank you.

My family spells it “a pizza chiena” pronounced A Pizza Gain-a. From Calabria

I have your book, Bravo! I'm devoted to Pasta grammar! I am not having any success in printing the online recipes. Help!!!

It’s like a double-decker TIELLA, like my nonna (from Gaeta, Lazio, LT) used to make. This looks AMAZING 🤩

My family calls it pizza rustica.

It's called Shadone where I'm from. Cleveland, Ohio. There is a candied fruit with a sweet dough version as well. Great memories 😊❤

Pizza Rustica is my favorite Italian dish ever. Every Easter my Grandma would make one in her roasting pan and it was what I looked forward to the most

Da noi napoletani questo è tortano!

That looks amazing I would add olives , peppers yum yum

That looks great! My family made the crust without yeast, but with a ton of eggs in the crust. More like a pastry crust. And a lot of ricotta in the stuffing.

it is "pizza chiena" neapolitan name. Meaning "pizza piena", same as "pizza ripiena" ... lol. Qui a Napoli la facciamo generalmente senza ricotta, uguale a quella del vostro video.

Fantastic…Hard work Eva! I get red faced when HARPER says in videos … so you “JUST” roll it up… or it’s “ JUST” so easy ….

All cooking is a labor of love. It IS still labor though. So precious HARPER, I’m so certain you love Eva dearly!!!! You both do this together. You are both exhausted. You both have so much going on in your lives.

Give your Eva appreciation for her labor on camera. Don’t just love the food. LOVE the LABOR that went into it.
Eva … love HARPER for all he does, with the camera, editing, etc. etc. and you two will be partners forever!

You are both very precious. I love all your videos. I just had to give Harper a hard time. 😘😘

‘Our dough is risen,’ is it an easter joke?

Great video,and a great job chef!!!😊

Wish I was there to be a taster. Love real Italian cooking.

Where are the eggs????

I am surprised that you a Calabrese didn't use sopressata. Born in Calabria my family used homemade sopressata, pork and different cheeses.

it's more a quiche than a pizza

I very much like Eva, and she has a lot of information to share - however she should be wearing a kerchief in the kitchen. That rich, curly hair is very attractive, except when she's tossing her head around while kneading dough.

We made pizza Rustica last night. Ricotta was added to the filling as that’s how my Grandmother did it. Also, I get the meats cut 1/4” thick from the deli then dice them.

Very big in New Jersey, especially in Belleville.

My grandma from Italy used to make it with the Italian Easter sweet bread…we just called it sausage pizza…Italian sausage, scramble the eggs add pecorino…so good…my mom still makes it every Holy Saturday

My family is from a small town in Salerno called Auletta! And we make a very similar version. We use ricotta, toma, pecorino romano, provolone and fresh mozzarella. We also add some cooked rice. Ham, prosciutto, and salami. We form it in a half moon kind of like a calzone. Buona Pasqua a tutti !!

A handed down recipe is similar with the exception of yeast added so I am interested in trying the addition next year

Harper and Eva, You'll find a lot of that in the Italian to Italian/American name changes. For instance, reegawt-ricotta, sfoleeahdel-sfogliatelle, gahnool-canoli etc. Many Italian immigrants from the 20's-30's were very poorly educated so what they learned from their parents was mostly childish mispronunciations of words. Children learn by hearing. Hope this helps.

Ok. ItaloAmerican pronunciation comes from villages in Campania. So the c(k) sound goes to g/gh.
Example— capicola —> ga-ba-gool. So pizza chiena becomes pizzagaina- Italian orthography pizza-gheina.

Looks like torta Milanese. (Tourte milanaise)

We call it Pizza Piena. So good! Thank you!

New subscriber, love the recipes ( huge fan of Italian food ) why does Gina always sounds so angry ???

Eva and Harper, I enjoy watching your videos 😊.