Valerie Bertinelli’s Mom’s Cherry Cheesecake Pizza Pie Is ‘Pure Comfort Food’

Food Network host Valerie Bertinelli inherited her love of cooking from her family, mainly from her mother. The cooking host occasionally shares her mother’s recipes and one of the actor’s favorites is her mom’s Cherry Cheesecake Pizza Pie. It’s a fun and sweet dessert the whole family will love as much as Bertinelli’s did.

Bertinelli’s Cherry Cheesecake Pizza Pie holds special memories for the actor

On her website, Bertinelli shared what makes this childhood recipe so special to her.

“I think of this as pure comfort food, yet the pizza-thin quality of the crust keeps this on the lighter side and oh so refreshing,” she wrote.

The former One Day at a Time actor added that her mother was a master in the kitchen, but when it came to desserts, this one is a definite stand-out for her: “My mom made many types of cakes, but I remember this particular cheesecake more often than any other, though I didn’t make it for a long time.”

It was when her parents were moving to a smaller home that Bertinelli happened upon her mom’s “50-year-old pizza pan.” She did what anyone else would have done: she “took it home and made this recipe.”

Valerie Bertinelli’s dessert takes some work, but it’s worth the effort

The Valerie’s Home Cooking host wasn’t kidding when she wrote in the recipe notes that there are “a lot of steps” to this beloved dessert (find the full recipe on Food Network’s site). There’s the pie dough, which must be “prepared and chilled” and calls for sugar, cinnamon, salt, cold butter, ice water, and two kinds of flour. There are also steps for the cheesecake filling, which “must be baked and chilled before you add the cherry topping” and is made with cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and lemon. The cherry compote requires fresh or frozen cherries (or blueberries if you prefer, Bertinelli says), sugar, a vanilla bean, and a zested and juiced half a lemon. Finally, there’s the whipped cream on top, for which you’ll need heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar, lemon zest, and sliced almonds.

To be fair, each of the steps involved truly is easy enough even for a beginner cook to handle. “None of it is difficult,” she says. “And there’s enough time between steps to work on the rest of your dinner.”

Valerie Bertinelli’s cheesecake was a hit with reviewers

The home cooks who reviewed the television personality’s recipe agreed with her that, yes, there are several parts to the dish, but they’re easy enough to tackle. The end result, they admitted, was worth the work.

“I’ve made this recipe twice. It’s super easy and tastes great! The crust is very flavorful,” said one reviewer.

Another home cook added, “Good cheesecake. Recipe seems hard but it’s really not. Lots of steps and a little time but it is good. First homemade crust that I made that turned out good.”

Others congratulated the cook for a dessert that’s tailor-made for home cooks, and expressed their intention to give it a go: “I’m definitely going to make this,” said one fan, while another agreed saying, “That looks so tasty and so easy to do.”