With more than 40 varieties of pie available for your eating pleasure, Rockland’s annual Pies on Parade event, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 23, may seem like a food lover’s paradise.

Yet some have told Frank Isganitis, co-owner of the Lime Rock Inn and one of the organizers of the event, that the pie fest encourages gluttony and unhealthful eating. Isganitis thinks that’s a bunch of no-fun nonsense.

“We’ve taken a little bit of heat because some people think it’s encouraging overeating and being a glutton and all that,” said Isganitis, who has helped put on Pies on Parade since its first year in 2005. “We don’t expect everybody to eat every single kind of pie available. That would be crazy. You’d be totally stuffed. Plus, you’re walking around the whole time. You can burn some of it off.”

The pie authorities of Rockland estimate that 700 pies, or 6,500 individual servings, are dished up at the annual event, sponsored by the Historic Inns of Rockland, an organization that includes the Lime Rock Inn, the Berry Manor Inn, the Captain Lindsay House and the Granite Inn. Tickets cost $25 and over the years the event has raised more than $30,000 for Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry. So while you’re sampling everything from traditional blueberry pie at the Berry Manor and the Brown Bag, to a butternut squash and bleu cheese tart at Rock City Books & Coffee, you’re doing good for midcoast communities. What’s not to love?

Isganitis and his fellow organizers expanded the event last year to include other venues in addition the inns. With 22 area businesses and organizations open on Sunday and serving pies, Pies on Parade has gone from an intimate event for a handful of pie fanatics to a large-scale, communitywide festival.
“It’s really a townwide event now, and we’ve gotten a lot more people involved this year,” he said. “We had to live up to the fact that the Food Network called us ‘Pie Town USA.’”

The attention paid in 2007 to Pies on Parade by the Food Network — by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, to be specific — brought the attention of another TV show: “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.” Back in September, Rowe made pies with the “Pie Moms” of the Berry Manor for an episode of the show that will be broadcast sometime in the next two months. Pies on Parade also was featured on “Samantha Brown’s Passport” on the Travel Channel.

In addition to the food aspect, there also is a social aspect to the event. Loraine Francis of Union has attended Pies on Parade for the past three years and looks forward to the event each January.

“I always go with a group of my girlfriends, and it’s a really fun day to go out and walk Main Street and go into places you may not have been in yet,” she said. “Aside from the actual food, that’s definitely the best part.”
Francis enjoys sweet more than savory, but was a big fan of the English-style meat pasties created last year by the Captain Lindsay House.

“I tend to like the sweet pies and fruit pies more, but last year the Captain Lindsay inn did these meat pasties that were my favorite,” said Francis. “They reminded me of what I [ate] in England and Scotland. They’re really yummy.”

Isganitis makes two kinds of pies at the Lime Rock Inn — the signature Key Lime Rock Pie, and a Pizza Rustica Pork and Cheese Pie. The latter is a family recipe from Isganitis, one that was served on Easter by his large Italian family.

“Italians eat very specific things on the various holidays, so the Pizza Rustica was always the thing we really looked forward to after Good Friday, when you’re supposed to fast,” he said. “We could not wait to eat it the next day.”

Many have a pie like that. In fact, pie can inspire heady debate among family and friends. Who makes the best apple pie? Who makes the best crust? Open faced or closed? Sweet or savory?

“Everybody likes what they like,” said Isganitis. “In fact, I always feel like I miss out each year, because I’m stuck at the inn, serving pie to everybody, and I never get to try anything. But that’s OK. Pie makes people happy.”

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Pies on Parade stats

• Number of pies served each year: approximately 700, or 6,500 servings
• Number of varieties: 40 in 2010
• Number of venues: 22
• Attendance thus far: 2,500
• Funds raised for the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry: more than $30,000 over the past six years.
• New this year: Meyer Lemon Whoopie Pie from Fiore Artisan Oils and Vinegars; Cider Braised Pork Brioche from Lily Bistro
• Featured on: “Bobby Flay’s Throwdown” on Food Network; “Dirty Jobs” with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel; “Samantha Brown’s Passport” on the Travel Channel.

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Lime Rock Inn Pizza Rustica Pork & Cheese Pie
Serves 6
Sweet egg pastry (pasta frolla):
2 cups flour
2 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons ice water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Filling:
2 egg yolks
¾ pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
¼ pound prosciutto, salami or boiled ham, chopped not too fine
¼ pound mortadella, chopped not too fine
¼ pound whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

Make pastry first. Mix all ingredients, and knead them together briefly, preferable on a cold surface. When well amalgamated into a compact dough, wrap dough in wax paper and put in refrigerator. Leave it in refrigerator at least one hour before proceeding with recipe. It can be refrigerated for four to five hours. If you have a food processor, mixing and kneading can be done in it. Put all ingredients into beaker and spin blade on and off until balls of dough form on them. When you take dough out of processor, shape it into a single ball before you wrap it and refrigerate it.

Now make the filling. Put the egg yolks into a bowl, and beat briefly with whisk Add ricotta, and beat until it becomes creamy. Add chopped meats, mozzarella, grated cheese, salt and pepper. Mix all ingredients roughly. Pre-heat oven to 375.

Thickly grease inside of a 1-quart baking dish with butter. Cut off about on third of the pastry dough. Over a sheet of kitchen parchment, roll it out into a round shape large enough to line the bottom of the baking dish and a little bit up the sides. Turn dough over into dish, peeling the sheet away from dough. Fit dough into bottom of dish, spreading evenly.

Cut another third of dough, and over parchment roll into rectangular strips as wide as baking dish is deep. Line sides of dish with strips. Overlap where necessary. Gaps can be filled by pressing in little bits of dough where sides meet bottom into a tightly sealed seam.

Pour filling from bowl into the dish. Press it lightly to force out air bubbles. Roll out the rest of the dough into a disk large enough to cover the top of pizza. Place it over the filling, pressing edges tightly against dough lining sides of dish, making tight seal. Trim away dough along sides wherever it comes up higher than one-half inch above top of pizza; fold the rest down. Smooth out rough connections with moistened fingertip.

Place in upper level of oven. Bake 45 minutes, until top has turned light golden brown. Do not open oven door during this time. If after 45 minutes the crust seems to require a little more browning, turn heat to 400 and bake for another 6 to 8 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of the Lime Rock Inn.

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Not Your Grandma’s Chess Pie
Serves 8-10
1 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 tablespoon flour
½ cup butter
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup maple syrup (Grade B, if available)
4 eggs
3 tablespoon corn meal
¼ cup sweetened evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Finely chop walnuts, cranberries, flour in food processor. Spread evenly over pie shell. Process butter, brown sugar and syrup until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Fill pie shell.

Bake 15 minutes at 425, then turn oven down to 300 and cook for another 40 minutes or until center is firm. Serve with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup.

Recipe courtesy of the Granite Inn.

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Captain’s Gallette
Serves 6
1½ cups flour
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon sugar
8 tablespoons butter, cold, plus more for dotting
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
1/3 cup water
5 medium apples
3 heaping tablespoons apricot preserves
Splash brandy
Confectioners’ sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Take out cookie sheet. Combine flour, salt, sugar in bowl. Slice cold butter into mixture. With fingers, pinch flour mixture and butter together so that it is lumpy. Stir in enough water to form dough into a ball — don’t over-moisten. Wrap ball in plastic and place in refrigerator for one hour. While dough is chilling, peel, core and slice apples, Four will be sliced into crescent pieces. The other apple will be chopped.

Take dough from refrigerator and quickly roll out into 12-inch circle with well-floured rolling pin on well-floured board. Place apples on rolled-out dough as follows:
Cover about 3 inches of center with chopped apple. Form a ring of apples starting 2 inches in from edge of dough and build layers toward center mound. Pat with several slices of extra butter and sprinkle on cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.

Bake for 1 hour or until crust is browned Place apricot preserves in a bowl and add enough brandy to make it easy to spread. Remove gallette from oven and spread apricot mixture on fruit. Cut gallette into 6 pieces. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Recipe courtesy of the Captain Lindsey House.