In the fall of 2009, Paula Zindler of Cummington wowed the judges at Hawley’s Pudding Hollow Pudding Contest that Halloween with her Pumpkin Gingerbread Pudding. This beautifully arranged, delectable combination of gingerbread and custard took first prize.
Paula says she had decided to enter the contest only the week before it took place, while other contestants had been working on their recipe entries for months.
The crown at the pudding contest isn’t the only cooking prize Paula has won. She has frequently taken home blue ribbons from local fairs for her baked goods.
When she and her husband first moved to Cummington from New York City 18 years ago, she visited the Cummington Fair’s display of food. “I can do that,” she told herself. She could, and she did. Over the years she has been awarded seven first prizes, one second prize, and one third. The last was at the King Arthur Flour competition at the Tri-County Fair in Northampton.
Her award-winning creations have included a fig, bacon and pecan chocolate layer cake; a bananas-Foster layer cake with walnut frosting; and a pancakes-and-bacon cake with maple icing. Lately, she has lost her interest in baking competitively. The pandemic, which she calls “the bomb,” didn’t help. She did make it clear to me that she could be lured back by another event like the pudding contest.
She continues to express her passion for coming up with culinary creations, which seems ingrained in her nature. Paula thinks her interest in nourishing people is an offshoot of the profession from which she is semi-retired, nursing.
“As a nurse, I call myself a feeder,” she reflected. “I am so happy to plan meals and shop and cook for people. I think that’s inherent in the nursing. That’s the driving force … feeding.”
She spends part of her time doing nursing work for a few select clients. She gardens extensively. She also bakes for people who need a little extra special touch on the table. She particularly loves to feed her daughter, whose family lives part time in Stockbridge.
That family is expected to arrive for Easter, and Paula plans to serve them her hearty, rich Italian Easter Pie. Before the pandemic struck, she and her husband traveled frequently to Italy in the spring to enjoy the scenery, the weather, and above all the food.
“Our favorite time to travel was to arrive on Easter Monday because it’s so quiet,” she recalled. “At the end of Easter there are so many kinds of Easter pies!”
Easter pie is what the Italians call an “indulgenza,” an indulgence. It is particularly welcome after a month and a half of Lent in that predominantly Catholic country. The pie uses all the lovely meats, eggs, and cheeses that many people have eschewed during this fasting period.
Paula explained that pretty much every area of Italy has a different Easter pie and that the pies are called by different names in different regions. “We were in Naples one time and fell upon a smorgasbord of Easter pies,” she said with a smile.
Her own pie, called a Pizza Rustica, is in fact based on a Neapolitan pie she was served there. Over the years, she looked at many similar recipes. Eventually, she combined her favorite elements among them into a substantial pie that is definitely her own.
Paula noted that the types of meats and cheese used in the recipe can vary depending upon what one finds in one’s home and in the store. In general, the meats in her pie are preserved Italian cold cuts. The cheeses may be varied as well, but including a relatively moist cheese like ricotta is necessary to keep the filling from drying out, she informed me.
The final pie is generous and full of flavor, like Paula Zindler herself.
Ingredients
For the crust
about 3-1/2 cups flour (Paula prefers 00 flour, an Italian blend made of durum wheat, but all-purpose flour will do)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold, cubed butter
3 eggs
1 to 3 tablespoons milk, as needed
For the filling
1 to 2 pounds processed meat, cut into half-inch segments (Paula most recently used a mixture of mortadella, capicola, Genoa salami, and a dried Calabrian sausage, along with some slices of prosciutto.)
16 ounces ricotta cheese, drained
8 ounces mozzarella, cubed
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste (not a lot of salt if your meat is very salty)
5 eggs
Instructions
Begin by making the butter crust. In a stand mixer, combine the flour and the salt. Mix in the butter until you have achieved the consistency of coarse sand.
Stir in the eggs, one at a time, and add enough milk to make the crust form a ball. “You want it to be soft enough so that you can roll it out and not have it crack at the edges,” said Paula.
Divide the dough into two balls. One ball should use two thirds of the dough; the other, one third. Wrap the balls in plastic wrap, and refrigerate them while you preheat the oven and work on the filling.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the meat and cheese in a large bowl.
Crack in the eggs, add salt and pepper, and combine thoroughly. Generously butter a 9-inch springform pan.
Take the larger dough ball out of the refrigerator. On a cold, lightly floured countertop, roll it into a circle that will cover the bottom and the sides of the pan with a little dough left over. Gently place it in the pan and up the sides. Let it hang over the sides a little bit.
Place the filling in the pan, and level it out with a spoon or a knife. Roll out the second piece of dough, and place it over the top of the pan. Roll the overhanging dough in to cover the edge of the top.
Cut holes in the top of the crust to let the pie steam in the oven. Paula likes to make a cross on the top for Easter.
Bake the pie until it is golden brown, about 1 hour. Be careful not to over bake; the inside of pie should remain a little custardy and not dry out.
Remove the pan from the oven and let the pie cool for at least an hour before removing the sides and bottom of the springform and serving. Serves about 10, depending on the size of your slices.
Tinky Weisblat is the award-winning author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.”