Chorizo and Butternut Squash Crostata

A light and flaky crust dusted in cornmeal tastes so good wrapped around a butternut, potato and chorizo hash. Perfect for breakfast, brunch or dinner!
This easy Savory Pie Crust can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge, ready to roll out and fill with this awesome filling, for a satisfying meal.

You'll need:

• 1 recipe of Savory Pie Crust, dusted with about 1-2 Tablespoons of cornmeal and chilled about an hour
• 3 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes (about 1/2 small butternut squash)
• 2 1/2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and diced into about 1/2 inch cubes
• 9 oz log of Mexican chorizo, beef or pork, I used beef. Don't confuse it with the hard Spanish chorizo.
• 1 cup small diced white onion, about half an onion
• 3/4 cup chopped pineapple
• 1 1/2cups fresh shredded mozzarella, the preshredded in the bags just don't melt the same, nor have the same flavor. And with the real, a little goes a long way.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 dried thyme, crushed in your palms
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg, beaten with a pinch of tap water, maybe 1 Tablespoon, for the crust
• sour cream for serving

In a large pan, cook chorizo, potato and butternut over medium-high heat, only stirring to keep the chorizo from burning.

Leave the chorizo and veggies to cook and get a nice crust like with hash. When one side begins to brown, turn heat down to medium and add onion, a very small pinch of salt and pinch of pepper. The chorizo has salt in it and is spicy and the veggies soak some of that up, so there's very little need for too much salt and pepper.
Add thyme and cinnamon and cook chorizo and veggies for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it so chorizo doesn't burn.
When veggies are a little tender, add pineapple, and I add the juice on the board from when I was chopping the pineapple. Just for a bit extra flavor :)

Remove chorizo mix from heat and let cool a bit while you make the crostata crust.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Unwrap the cornmeal dusted dough disk, but don't remove it from the plastic wrap.
Quickly roll the dough out to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Carefully slid it onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray, covered with parchment paper and sprayed again. Slid the plastic wrap out from under the crostata crust.

 Pile the crust high with the chorizo and butternut mixture.
Then top with a cup of mozzarella cheese, leaving about 1 1/2 inch edge.

 Lift edge up and over the filling, stretching, but being careful not to tear dough.

 I take kitchen scissors and make a little slit so the edges lie down flatter when I'm folding the edges over.
 

Brush on the egg wash, so it'll get nice and golden.
Sprinkle on the rest of the mozzarella and bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let it rest for about 10-15 minutes.

Serve with sour cream and garnish with cilantro, if desired. But the sour cream is a must. oh yum!

Savory Pie Crust

I love this recipe. It's a basic pie crust recipe I've had forever and I don't remember where I adapted it from. I just know this is one of those recipes I'd just as soon use than to try a new one. LOL

This makes a great traditional savory pie, or like pictured above, a rustic galette (free form savory pie, not cooked in a pie pan).  Also, in the pic above, I dusted the crust in cornmeal before chilling. The cornmeal is not needed at all. I just like to use cornmeal with some recipes.

It's incredibly easy too! It only takes a couple minutes to whizz together and throw into the fridge. After chilling at least an hour, roll the dough out and top with whatever savory topping you'd like. The crust doesn't rise, so roll it out to the thickness you desire, as even as possible. I poke a knife into the center to see if it's about the same thickness as the edges.

Also, make sure your butter and water is super cold! I measure the water into a glass measuring cup and stick it into the fridge while I get things together. You can also stick a cube of ice into it, just don't use the ice cube in your dough.  And handle little as possible.  Try to resist your inner perfectionist and just gitRdone and into the fridge to chill.

You'll need:

2.5 cups of flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed, I cut it lengthwise and then crosswise into about 14 cubes.
1/2 super cold water, you might not use all of it.
2 Tablespoons of cornmeal for dusting, optional

Put flour and salt into food processor with cold cubed butter and pulse just a couple times, until you get pea-sized crumbles, don't worry if you have some bigger chunks.

Slowly pulse in the cold water until dough just begins to hold together when you pinch it. You probably won't use all the 1/2 cup of water.

Carefully dump dough out onto a large piece of plastic cling wrap, and using the wrap, form a rough disk.

Cut disk in half and put half of it onto another piece of plastic wrap dusted with about 1-2 T of cornmeal.

Fold wrap up around dough to make it easier to form a disk.

Chill in fridge for at least one hour.

Roll out and use in pie pans for savory pies or simply onto baking sheets for rustic "pies," calzones, etc.