(by Jackie Schifalacqua Atkins)
My mother might go into the kitchen if she needed a glass of water and no one was around to fetch it for her.
Cooking food was something akin to punishment. First you had to admit you ate food, which according to her was something people had in common with animals.
She was raised in an Italian ethnic household, and my guess is that this resistance to the planning, preparation, and serving of food to her family was comparable to the negation of relegating women to servitude. While her mother was always in the kitchen, my mother saw no need for it. She was too busy joining committees and starting initiatives to ban Mad magazine from store shelves in Mount Penn, Pennsylvania.
I did not suffer from her lack of handing down family recipes because we never (when the cook was off) ever ate anything remotely equivalent to Italian American cooking. There were two exceptions. My father’s family summer homestead in Cape May, New Jersey, was presided over by my nonna, a Roman matrona who made all her own pasta, raised her own livestock, and grew all her vegetables. Every Sunday morning, I would plop myself down beside her marble-topped kitchen kneading table and become mesmerized by her careful layering of the stretched dough into a cranking machine, knowledgeably changing the dial on the machine until the right diameter for the pappardelle was achieved. Occasionally, my mother would come into the kitchen for water and shake her head. “Shouldn’t you be practicing your tennis serve?”
The other exception to our daily intake of roast beef, steak, mashed potatoes, and peas took place on Easter Saturday at high noon, the time Catholics traditionally break their Lenten fast. On this day, my maternal grandmother would deliver from the bowels of South Philadelphia to rural Pennsylvania her pizza Ghena. Now, this is not to be confused with what others call an Easter Pie, which is fine in its own right but is really a pie with a thin crust. No, the Ghena was a cross between a quiche and a hearty loaf of bread. The dough was thick as a rustic pizza, stuffed with cheeses, eggs, and, and ham. No ricotta.
On this once-a-year day, even my mother ate food. Opening up this care package beat all the presents on Christmas morning. Then one day my Grandma died, as often happens with 96-year-olds. Easter meals were now no more than roast lamb and chocolate-covered eggs. All of a sudden, my mother became nostalgic for her ignored heritage. As befit her personality, the lack of the pizza Ghena was all my fault. After all, since I liked to cook, why didn’t I get the recipe before my grandmother died?
My grandmother never had any recipes. That’s the way Neapolitan immigrants flowed. Little did she know, I had perfected this dish years before because I, and I alone, took the time out to go down from my Chestnut Hill studio and observe my grandma making things. I served the Ghena with wine at parties; didn’t need Easter to do it.
So two Easters after my grandmother died, I drove up to Berks County, Pennsylvania, for a command performance at dinner. Though my paisley wraparound dress was creased from the hour and a half drive (duly noted by my mother when I walked in the door, along with my lack of pantyhose and bra), I carried a surprise package. Tucked within my April Cornell carpet bag was the ghost of Easters past—the link between a horse cart street and a gravel driveway, an inheritance worth more then my mother’s Limoges and Murano. I ran over to the kitchen and instructed whatever the name of the woman who was slaving in there (my mother went through help like silk stockings) to cut the savory pie in squares and serve it with the cocktails.
Back in the den, I grabbed my tumbler of Maker’s Mark and waited for the silver tray arrival of happier Easter memories. When my mother saw it, she smiled.
“Whom did you get to make this?”
“I did,” I said, smiling right back at her.
“How nice. Make sure you give the recipe from wherever you got it to [whatever her name was]. And put a bra on.”
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Jackie Schifalacqua Atkins a retired jockey who rode in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. She lives in Cape May, New Jersey, and writes book and theatre reviews for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Junto, and Broad Street Review. She is also a TV screenwriter with several productions on EWTN.
Pizza Ghena
Dough:
1 T. active dry yeast
2 1/2 c. warm water
5 - 6 c. unbleached flour
1 t. sea salt
2 1/2 t. olive oil, plus additional for oiling bowl and pan
Filling:
1/2 lb. prosciutto ham (bought thick and diced into chunks)
1/2 lb. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
12 large eggs, beaten
1/2 c. minced flat leaf parsley
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 egg beaten with 1 t. water
In a large bowl, proof the yeast in 1 c. water until small bubbles form.
Add remaining water, flour, salt, and olive oil, mixing until a sticky dough forms.
The secret behind this pie is getting the dough to the right consistency.
Knead like you would pizza dough, but it will rise quicker and higher.
Place in an oiled bowl, rubbing some of the oil over the dough, cover with plastic or a damn tea towel, and let rise until doubled in height.
Punch down and knead again.
Preheat over to 375 F.
Brush bottom and sides of a 13 x 15-inch baking dish or 10 x 3-inch springform pan with oil.
Roll out one piece of dough to fit bottom and sides of pan.
Fit dough into pan, stretching it until it overhangs the rim.
Mix prosciutto, cheese, beaten eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.
Pour into pan.
Roll out remaining dough to fit on top, and crimp to attach to bottom dough.
Slit the top of the dough in several places with a sharp knife.
Brush with egg wash.
Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until golden brown.
Pie can be refrigerated for up to a week. Best served at room temperature.
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