National Pie Week is a great excuse to roll out the pastry

Sweet or savoury - what's not to love about a good pie?

PIE is a dish that can bring so much variety to peoples lives.

It is National Pie Week from March 2- 8 and savoury or sweet, this dish has been around in various forms since the time of the ancient Egyptians and a loved favourite by many since.

In Roman times the pie’s pastry shell had many purposes - it was used as a baking dish, a storage container and a way to serve the filling. Romans would use meats, oysters, mussels and fish as the filling and a mixture of flour, oil and water to keep it all in place.

Unlike these days when we enjoy the pastry as much as the filling, the Roman's made pastry that was often tough and inedible and designed to be thown in the bin.

In 16th century England “surprise pies” featured live animals inside - the animals would jump out at posh dinner parties and included frogs, squirrels, foxes. So now you know where those 'four and twenty blackbirds' came from.

In Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare’s first tragedy - Titus Andronicus wreaks revenge on Queen Tamora and her family for their evil deeds by baking her sons into a pie and serving it to her. If he were around today, maybe Shakespeare would have been a scriptwriter for Midsomer Murders!

From steak and kidney pie to apple pie and custard - whatever your favourite filling, we are a nation of pie lovers.