Cheese-Crusted Meatball Pie

This delicious recipe came from one of my many cookbooks, Betty Crocker's "Baking For Today". This book includes recipes for everything from breads, to cookies, to main courses, to cakes, to appetizers, to perfect pies. I have made several recipes from this book before, and they all turned out nicely. So for supper, I decided to try Cheese-Crusted Meatball Pie. This dish consists of meatballs, sauce, and a flaky crust made with cheddar cheese on top. It was very good, and fairly easy to make. The secret to the flaky crust is to heat the sauce first, which also allows the pie to heat through on the inside before the crust overbrowns. The crust is a little crumbly and hard to roll out perfectly, so my pie has a very rustic look to it. But that's okay, it still tasted very good. I also had a little bit of crust leftover, so I just slid it on a baking sheet and baked it along side the pie.

Cheese-Crusted Meatball Pie
MEATBALLS
1 pound lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 jar (1 pound 10 ounces) tomato pasta sauce (any variety) 
CHEESE PASTRY
1 cup white all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (2 ounces)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter or shortening
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Heat oven to 425◦F. In medium bowl, mix beef, bread crumbs, onion, salt and milk. Shape mixture into 18 meatballs (I made smaller meatballs and got a lot more). Place meatballs in 15x10x1-inch pan. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until meat thermometer inserted in center of meatballs reads at least 160◦F and meatballs are no longer pink in center.

Meanwhile: In one quart saucepan, heat pasta sauce to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low; keep warm.
Make cheese pastry: In medium bowl, mix flour, salt and cheese. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with fork until all flour is moistened and dough almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary). On lightly floured surface, gather dough into a ball; shape into flattened round. Roll into 10-inch square.

Place meatballs in 8-inch square glass baking dish. Top with hot pasta sauce. Cut slits in pastry; place over meatball mixture and tuck under edges. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

Crocker, Betty. "Cheese-Crusted Meatball Pie." Recipe. Baking For Today, Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, 2005. 122.