Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I learned how to make these parcels of goodness that are best described as a cross between Pizza Rustica and Pane Farcito. Below is my chicken/pesto version.
It has zucchini, eggplant, red and yellow pepper, chicken, pesto* and sun dried tomatoes, all layered with cheese in between. Grill all the veg/chicken and let cool, then start layering inside your dough. Back then, they always used a white bread dough, but I cheated and used 2 packages of Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough.
I have not tried to make one in well over a decade, (remember when sun dried tomatoes were all the rage?) I was nervously expecting a big fail, but instead, I got lucky with only a minor glitch easily remedied next time around. I didn’t cook it long enough and the bottom crust wasn’t quite finished. An extra 5 minutes would have fixed it.
Rediscovering the Rustica/Farcito will make packing picnics for summer outings SO MUCH better, since I think that these are best served room temperature.
Back when we were making these in the cafe, there were 3 flavors…the Chicken/Pesto above, the Italian, with lots of cured meats and low moisture cheeses, and the Vegetarian, that mainly substituted the chicken for a layer of omelette. I can’t wait to play around with some other styles this summer.
I had no idea this would work out or I’d have photographed the process…sorry, but if you’re really interested, let me know and I’ll take some snaps of the next one I make.
*Sage/Almond pesto rather than Basil/Pine Nut. The CC hates pine nuts.
UPDATE:Â I’ve posted the step by steps here.