The holidays are here and that means it’s pie season. I much prefer galettes and crostatas, though, and they are so much easier than pie!

A crostata (or a galette) is a free-formed pastry, which is why I love it so much. Usually it’s a dessert dish, filled with seasonal fruits, like this apple galette I made, but it can also have a savory filling! Like potatoes, or tomatoes, for example. 🙂 I’ve been wanting to attempt a savory crostata for a while, and I finally got to make one and record the measurements this week!

Inspired by comfort food and pretty pastries, this is like a dressed up version of a green bean casserole. I actually like it better, because the herbed crust is so delicious! This is great for Thanksgiving, or for dinner on a relaxing Sunday evening.

Please note: the measurements below are for two crostatas (I couldn’t just make one!), but feel free to half them if you don’t want to make that much!

Rustic Savory Mushroom & Green Bean Crostata
(makes 2 crostatas, 5-8 servings)
Total time: 2 hours

Herbed Crust 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry purpose flour, chilled
• 1 tiny pinch sea salt
• 2 t organic sugar
• 1 cup chilled non-dairy butter (I used Earth Balance this time–I want to experiment with a coconut oil crust in the future! Do any of you use Nutiva products for baking?)
• 6 T fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used 2 T each of thyme, parsley and sage)
• 4-5 T ice water

1. Pulse the flour, sea salt, and organic sugar in a food processor until well incorporated.
2. Cut the non-dairy butter into the flour mixture, using a fork. Don’t worry about making the butter pieces small—sugar cube sized chunks are fine.
3. Process in the food processor until you get a coarse, crumbly mixture. Clumps are fine here. Halfway through, add the herbs.
4. Add the ice water to the mixture, one tablespoon at a time. Pulse after each tablespoon & assess if you need to add more water each time you do–you want the dough to just come together.
5. Divide your dough in half and carefully dump each half on two separate pieces of saran wrap. For each round of dough, take the plastic and wrap it around the dough, shaping it into a flat disc as you go. Watching Martha Stewart do it is helpful! 🙂
6. Chill your dough in the fridge for at least an hour (or overnight). While your dough is chilling, you can prepare the filling!

I used Fork and Beans’ Green Bean Casserole recipe, with several of my own adjustments (noted below).

Ingredients:

• 10 oz fresh green beans, chopped and boiled until just tender—put them in ice after straining so that they stay fresh. Once they are cold, take them out of the ice and let them dry on a paper towel.
• grapeseed or olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 2 T garbanzo flour (or regular all purpose flour)
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth–all I had on hand was phở broth, so I just went with it, but it actually turned out amazing! It made everything very aromatic! 🙂
• 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• a generous dash of garlic powder
• a pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Assembling the crostata

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Take the chilled dough rounds out of the fridge.
3. On a floured surface, roll the dough rounds into rough circles.
4. Transfer the dough rounds to two glass pie pans (mine were 8 inches in diameter), or a baking sheet.
5. Spoon the green bean and mushroom filling onto the dough, leaving about 1 1/2 inches at the edges. Fold all edges of the dough towards the center. Food52 has some good tips for this.
6. Brush the crust with some almond milk or melted nondairy butter.
7. Sprinkle the whole thing with breadcrumbs or almond parmesan, to your taste. Last night, I made some herbed breadcrumbs with my favorite Ezekiel bread, so I used those! Check out my Facebook for the herbed breadcrumbs recipe.
8. Lower the oven’s heat to 350 degrees F and bake the crostata for 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is golden. I let mine bake a little longer because I wanted it to be extra toasty!

Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a beautiful time with their family this weekend! Thank you for reading!