What is Easter 'Basket' Cheese?

by Clare Leschin-Hoar, Posted Mar 31st 2010 @ 11:00AM

basket cheese Photo: Janet Wennerstrom

While it's not quite as whimsical as chocolate bunnies or colored eggs, "basket cheese" -- a mild cheese that tastes like a combination of ricotta, pressed cottage cheese and very fresh mozzarella -- is a sought-after Easter food among Italian families. The mild cheese is traditionally sliced and eaten with bread, jam or honey for breakfast, or nibbled as an afternoon snack with olive oil, salt and pepper.

"It's really the simplest cheese someone could make," says Louella Hill, cheesemaker at Narragansett Creamery in Providence, R.I., which has been producing hundreds of baskets of cheese for the Easter holiday for the Boston, Providence and New Haven markets. "It's fresh milk, gently coagulated with rennet and placed into baskets to provide the traditional shape. It's meant to be the first flush of milk with the first flush of green grass, and has a very short shelf life -- a few weeks at most."

It's also the traditional cheese of Italian Easter pies, of which there are many variations: Pizza Piena, Pizza Chena, Pastiera Napoletana or Pizza Rustica.

"Italian Easter pie is always a savory pie," says pie expert Mollie Cox Bryan. "It's filled with cheese and meats, but there are many variations. Some are thicker than others, with specific regional ingredients or meats. And like many pies, family recipes are handed down through generations. Most of all, it's a pie to celebrate the coming of spring."

Basket cheese is produced by a number of commercial cheesemakers across the country, and can be found at well-stocked grocery-store cheese counters, often near the fresh mozzarella, or at Italian specialty stores. Often it is labeled "fresh table cheese" but will be packaged in the identifying plastic basket.

Pattie Federico's Pizza Piena

Note: This recipe makes three 9-inch pies. The recipe for the crust is for a single top and bottom, while the filling is for three Pizza Pienas.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup lard
5 extra large eggs

Mix dry ingredients. Break eggs into separate bowl and mix with a fork. Add eggs and lard to dry ingredients. Blend in a stand mixer using hook attachment or by hand until lard is blended into the dough. Slice dough in half, roll into a ball and wrap tightly in wax paper to prevent drying. Set aside, leaving it at room temperature.

Filling:
Note: Purchase meat in bulk, not sliced.
2 pounds prosciutto
2 pounds boiled ham
1 pound pepperoni
1 basket cheese (or substitute 1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese)
3 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
18 extra-large eggs
3 egg yolks for brushing pie surface

Cut the meats into small dice. Mix thoroughly before adding remaining ingredients. Mix until blended.

Flour surface and roll out pie crust to fit 9-inch cake pan. Place crust in pan, allowing excess to fall over sides. With a ladle, scoop filling into cake pan. Repeat for remaining two pies. Roll out remaining dough. Place on top of cake pan, tucking in sides, while sealing with a fork.

Mix three egg yolks with fork. Using a pastry brush, paint top crust to provide a shiny finish. With a very sharp knife, cut cross vents in top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes until crust is golden brown.

Filed Under: Holidays
Tags: Basket Cheese, cheese, Easter, easter pie, narragansett creamery, savory pie

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-31-2010 @5:54PM Freda said... How very interesting... I love reading about how other cultures celebrate holidays, especially when it revolves around food. Thank you!
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4-02-2010 @9:11AM ssweetmj said... 5 eggs in the crust, 6 eggs in the filling - can this be made healthier?
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4-02-2010 @9:27AM andy said... chlestorol doesent bother us Italians follow this with a nice mountain of lasagna and a big piece of riccota pie

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4-02-2010 @3:15PM Rae D said... Eggs are not unhealthy.

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4-02-2010 @9:23AM lizzie said... ssweetmj - I guess if you decrease the eggs it's ok to have the 1/4 cup of LARD! ;P
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4-02-2010 @9:39AM babymonsta said... is that all people do is complian?????????????????? DANG!!!!!
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4-02-2010 @10:46AM tcraw10506 said...
People unless your going to eat the whole pie its not that bad for you. Think about it Italian's are some of the oldest living people.
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4-08-2010 @10:05PM hayhap said... It is a holiday. There are traditions that are eaten for holidays. Everyone needs to stop being so crazy about food needing to be healthy all the time. Just enjoy the tradition. And if you are going to complain, get it right, there are 18 eggs in the filling, not 6.
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4-02-2010 @1:49PM LuAnn said... In my family the pie is cut into small squares and eaten with Easter dinner. It's not meant to be sliced like an apple pie. The holidays are not the time for cutting corners. Everything in moderation. And it is delicious!
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4-02-2010 @3:56PM teresa said... Our family adds Italian sausage into our pies. We usually eat the pie, cold or room temperture and in small squares. We try to save it until Easter Dinner, but my 85-year old father will snack on it the entire Easter week, so we have an extra pie or so, hidden, to have at Easter Dinner. Yum, yum!
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4-02-2010 @4:05PM Rob said... This pie has been a tradition in my family for generations. You need to understand that our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were pretty much self-sufficient. They fed their families on whatever they could grow or raise and certainly did a fabulous job at creating tradition.
High in cholesterol .....sure, but this pie is only made but once a year. So, lets keep tradition alive and live to enjoy passing these on to our children and grandchildren. Buona Festa!
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4-05-2010 @7:47PM Joe said... I have worked in the Philadephia area for a large dairy company for many years and this was the first year we did not sell Maggio Basket cheese. 10 years ago we sold over 4000 cases to local Philadelphia supermarkets but last year our sales had dwindled to around 1200 cases. It seems the folks that used the products were older Italians or those that had the recipes handed down to them. As the other comments stated the cheese was a mild cross between fresh mozzarella and ricotta cheese but really did not have alot of flavor. It did however make a great Easter Pie with all of the cheese and Italian meats. It was to sit right next to the Butter Lambs if anyone remembers them.
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