I picked this recipe not because I was craving a New England Meat Pie, but because I had every single ingredient on hand with the exception of the frozen hash browns–an easily acquired grocery item.
I had no idea as to what New England Meat Pie is. Google’s main result was a Tourtiere, a French meat pie enjoyed across Canada and New England:
Tourtière, also known as pork pie or meat pie, is a combination of ground meat, onions, spices, and herbs baked in a traditional piecrust. There are many variations of tourtière throughout the regions of Franco-American communities and Canada and even among members of the same family.
Most recipes include a combination of ground pork and beef, but it is not unusual to include venison or other game meats in the pie.
This recipe is decidedly not a Tourtière.
It’s a meatball pie.
Meatball pie sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Like a meatball calzone in a pie plate?
Well, this recipe is not that, either.
A question: what planet does this recipe need a full pound of ground beef?
You cannot fit more than that number of meatballs in a ten inch pie pan.
Speaking of the pie pan, I was really surprised at how the potato pie shell was coming together.
The shell browned:
Here is the filling:
But I accidentally left the oven door open a bit when I put the filling into the potato shell, so the temp dropped all the way into the 200-somethings. So instead of the pie popping in for just 20 minutes it took closer to 40.
Whatever.
Here is the result:
There were no surprises here. It tasted just like one would expect: tomato-based meatball stew on top of crispy hash browns.
I didn’t hate it.
Mr. Sauce, Esq. said I should make it again but without the vegetables and more cheese.
So basically an Italian meatball pie. In shredded potatoes.
I could get behind that.
And although on the menu but not in the photo, I still made the Apple-Cranberry Salad Mold to use up the leftover canned cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.
It doesn’t look great, but it tasted good.
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[…] Get the recipe from Dinner Is Served 1972. […]
We ate meat pies a lot when we lived in Cape Town South Africa. No veg just meat and pie crust. Yummy with a nice salad. This looks good too!
The Yinzerella meat pie is more inviting by color alone. Yes to more cheese! Would prefer a Swedish meatball sauce/treatment here i/o tomato, especially w New England clam chowder being white vs. Manhattan-red. Recipe calls for steam heating bread to reheat(?) -interesting. Fruit mold looks great!
the bread comes in a can!
A meatball pie of questionable heritage, a jello salad, a chiffon pie, and Boston brown bread (to make sure it is a New England dinner) — this is definitely a mid-century meal! And swap out the tomato sauce for cream of mushroom soup, and you have an upside-down tater tot casserole! Love it! : )
OMG, that is an inverted tater tot casserole!