I can still remember the excitement! It was Sunday night and my sister, parents, and I would set up the T.V. tables, turn on the Magical World of Disney, and sit down for dinner and a movie. Sometimes we would have leftover seafood from Friday night or other times my dad would make us “quesadilla sandwiches” and pop fresh popcorn. Occasionally, he would even grill up shish kabobs and make fresh hummus or baba ghanoush. But perhaps one of the best memories I had growing up of this Sunday night family tradition was when he made us Grandmom’s Pizza Pie!

Restoring a Family Tradition 

I was reading a story about Michael Strahan and he was describing his favorite memory. He said, “I have the best memories as a kid eating ice cream. It was a family tradition that I had with my father. It was nice.” 

This got me thinking about my own past while creating my Personal Growth Bucket List. Whether I wanted to make them for myself or give them to my future family, I wanted to create amazing memories.

See, growing up, we lived pretty far from family. Therefore, it was up to my parents by themselves to find ways to create memories for our family. It couldn’t have been easy doing it somewhat alone. That is why our Sunday dinner was often my favorite family tradition looking back. It was during those nights that we laughed, talked about what was coming up, and just relaxed together. It was a memory I will carry for all time.

Therefore, it became quite evident that in order to accomplish my goal, I needed to restore a family tradition. I needed to learn how to make Grandmom’s Pizza Pie!

Some of the best memories growing up often occur around Sunday Night Dinner. But nothing was more magical then when we made the family tradition of Grandmom's Pizza Pie! #PizzaPieRecipe #FamilyTradition #FamilyDinner Click To Tweet

How to Make Grandmom’s Pizza Pie

So let me start of with some disclaimers about myself! In no way am I, or do I consider myself a chef, a cook, a food blogger or anything of the sort. I do like to make good tasting food, but in all reality, I am a recipe follower who needs to go down the list and check all the boxes off as I complete them! I mean seriously, what do you think this whole Bucket List Project thing is but one giant check list!

The second disclaimer is that no one in my family is Italian, including my Grandmother, Armen Gamble. She was actually Armenian so if you want some Baklava or dolmades she had some amazing recipes. Plus, to be honest, I am not 100% sure this was an actual creation of hers or just something she found and shared with my dad and thus we called it Grandmom’s Pizza Pie.

Now, I am sure some of my best Italian friends will have better recipes for a deep dish pizza pie. They may even have ways to help or improve this one. However, this is the recipe that was passed down to me as part of my family tradition. It is the one I can vividly remember smelling in my house and to be honest, it makes my heart happy.

So without further ado let’s discuss how you too can make this recipe for your next family dinner! 

The Ingredients

Like I said, when making dinner, I am a check list, recipe follower. So if you are like me, then you will be quite happy with this recipe for pizza pie because it doesn’t need much, anything unusual, or anything expensive. Personally, it drives me nuts when I see a recipe online and it asks for some bizarre ingredient that you can only find at one store in a mountain in Tibet that is only sold at $523.00 per pound yet you only need a teaspoon! 

If this is truly my Grandmother’s recipe, then I am sure you can find most if not all of these ingredients at your local grocery store. We were able to obtain everything we need from our local Walmart. So if you like to shop online or like to pick up curbside, then click here to get your ingredients from Walmart Grocery online!

So here are ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• • 1 lb Ground Beef
  • ¼ lb grated Mozzarella cheese
  • ¼ tsp Minced Garlic
  • 1 tsp Parsley or Italian seasoning
  • 6oz can Tomato Paste
  • 8oz can Tomato Sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups Bisquick
  • 5-6 TBSP Milk
  • Salt and Pepper

Instructions on making the Pizza Pie

When it comes to making my Grandmom’s Pizza Pie recipe, most of the prep work before baking is pretty easy to follow. First, you are going to want to preheat the Oven to 400°.

Then in a large non-stick skillet, brown your beef. As it browns, add garlic, parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Now, while your meat is browning, make the pie crust by adding milk to Bisquick. You should stir it with a fork until dough forms into ball and it should not be too sticky.

Now after the dough has been made in the pan, roll it out on a floured dusted board or table. You are going to want to shape it to fit a 9” pie dish. 

Learn from our mistakes: So as you see in the picture above, I originally spread out my dough on a wax paper covered in flour. I thought this would be less messy but in reality, it was a disaster. The dough got stuck to the wax paper and essentially, I had to try it again on just the table. Growing up, my dad just used our kitchen table. He would dust 1/3rd of the table with flour and then roll out and knead the dough. So that is what I did the 2nd time and it came out perfect. 

Then when the dough is kneaded, add it to pie pan or baking dish. My family tradition was always to add the dough to a glass pie dish but I am not sure if that was a true tradition or just because that is what we had. As seen above, we used a very classic pie tin and it still worked perfectly.

After meat mixture is ready, place it in the crust covered pie pan. Then you will cover the top of the beef with grated Mozzarella cheese. Make sure you spread the cheese evenly over all meat.

Now here comes the tricky part, if you are messy like me. Next you are going to need to spoon tomato paste over meat. Of course tomato past is kind of thicker so go slowly and try to spread it everywhere. We used one of those plastic cake icing type spatulas and it worked great. 

Then after you have spread the tomato paste over the whole top, pour your tomato sauce over that. You are going to want to make sure that the tomato sauce completely covers the meat.

Then when you are done, take your pie over to the hot oven and bake at 400° for approximately 25 minutes. This of course is the time when you clean up the kitchen table that you now have turned into a science experiment gone wrong!

Fun Addition: Growing up, my dad often had or perhaps even made extra dough. He would then take that little bit of extra dough, flatten it out onto a flat pizza pan. Then he would cover it with any remaining sauce, cheese, and Italian spices and bake it up for about 5 – 10 minutes. He would then offer us little deformed pizza appetizers while the full deep dish still baked. So if you have extra, don’t waste it…have a snack!

Now with all things that come out of the oven, the insides of this pizza pie are really hot! I am sure it is not part of your family tradition to burn the insides of your mouth! So please let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving. You will know when it is fully done when not only the pie crust becomes golden but pie inners are set.

While the pie cools, this is often a great time to get your sides ready like salad or peas or whatever your family enjoys. But we recommend to grab all family members together, set the table, pray, and get ready to create some wonderful memories with your new family tradition.

Now Get Baking Your Own Family Tradition

Ronald Reagan once said, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” It is quite evident for me that some of my best memories were created at family dinner. Of course, there are other amazing ways to create memories and unique family traditions. So what is of your favorite family tradition? Is there something that you have carried down from generations? Or like someone shared in for Couple’s Bucket List item #261, have you created your own tradition together with your spouse or family members?

Either way, let us know in the comments below. Perhaps you will inspire someone to create a new tradition with their family!

Print Grandmom’s Pizza Pie Recipe

Yield: 4-8

Grandmom's Pizza Pie: A Family Tradition

Print

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb Ground Beef
• ¼ lb grated Mozzarella cheese
• ¼ tsp Minced Garlic
• 1 tsp Parsley or Italian seasoning
• 6oz can Tomato Paste
• 8oz can Tomato Sauce
• 1 1/2 cups Bisquick
• 5-6 TBSP Milk
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions

1. Pre Heat Oven to 400°
2. Brown beef in large skillet, add garlic and parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. While meat is browning, make crust by adding milk to Bisquick, stir with fork until dough forms into ball – should not be too sticky.
4. Roll out on floured dusted board or table to fit a 9” pie pan. Then add dough to pie pan or baking dish.
5. After meat mixture is ready, place it in crust in pie pan & top with grated cheese spread evenly over meat.
6. Next spoon tomato paste over meat, and then pour tomato sauce over that. Tomato sauce should completely cover meat.
7. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for approx. 25 minutes when the pie crust becomes golden & pie sets.
8. Let sit 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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