Want the scoop on Italian pies? Find out as we trace the origins and take a look at the different variations that hail from Italy.
Italian pies occupy a special place in the history of the country as well as its cuisine. The foundations of the Italian pie were laid down many years ago as a way to celebrate the end of the period of lent. The period was one that required the Italian Christians to observe fasts while Friday being a complete meatless day. The period ended with Easter Sunday that they used as a way to celebrate the end of the period of fasting.
The Italian Easter pie
This is probably the thing that kept the Italians looking forward to Easter. Basically they would make a delicious meat pie to celebrate the end of a period of fasting. These meaty pies were also incredibly cheesy and quite heavy on the stomach. Each region was known to have its own variation of the Italian Easter pie. Over the years the Italian Easter pie became a regular entity in bakeries and other non-Christian lands as well.
The Italian cheese pie
The Italians love to eat cheese and they have a wide variety of cheeses in the country. If you want to minus the meat and keep the cheese then you are free to do so with the Italian pie because this is what some of the Italians used to do. The Italian cheese pie comes across as something totally different from the Italian meat pie.
The Italian Spinach pie
This is one of the regional variations of the Italian pie. Spinach has many great benefits for the body and as it is the Italians were used to eating lots of spinach. The Italian Spinach pie also became an ideal way to give the kids their dose of spinach which would otherwise take a lot of convincing to do.
The Italian rice pie
The Northern areas of Italy are very fond of eating rice. In fact rice is the pasta of the North in terms of its popularity. It is no wonder that their variation of the Italian pie is based around white boiled rice. This particular variation of the Italian pie is actually a sweet tasting light delight as compared to the rest of the pies.
The Italian ricotta pie
Sweet tasting alright but this is no bite-size item to eat on the go. Rather the pie that consists of a generous amount of one of Italy’s most precious cheeses is quite heavy on the stomach and extremely tasty on the tongue.
The Italian chicken pot pie
This is the ideal variation of the pie if you do not want to go too heavy on the meat and neither without it. The Italian chicken pot pie consists of bite-size pieces of chicken that are nicely embedded and evenly spaced out within the pie.
The Italian vegetable pie
For veggie lovers this is one of the best things that could happen to them. You have a considerable amount of freedom when it comes to the vegetable pie but the traditionally used vegetables are potatoes, tomatoes and onions.
