The Humble Pie: Sixty Tortes, Quiches, Pizzas, and Empanadas

Readers flipping through this slender volume in search of a new variation on peach pie or cherry cobbler will be in for a surprise. This is no dessert book but, instead, an interesting addition to the main course section of your cookbook shelf. Kennedy's ( American Pie ) recipes are all for one-dish, or main-dish, meals. She writes that main-dish meals, while never very popular in the U.S., have a good deal to offer. They grow out of economic necessity, and tend to be sparing in those ingredients that we now shun for health reasons--fats, salt and meat--while emphasizing vegetables and spices for flavor. Main-dish meals masquerade under different names: pizza, quiche, samosas, empanadas and cornish pasties are all represented here. Kennedy offers practical advice on making substitutions for eggs, salt, butter, cheese, milk and cream. The recipes for the different crusts and pies are easy to follow and should pose no problems to the inexperienced. As Kennedy points out, a main-dish pie can be both a tasty and a practical meal, and a delightfully different answer to the question ``What's for dinner?'' (July)