Filo tarts
- rosemary
- Jun 7
- 3 min read
"I think of filo pastry as edible wrapping paper. Something in which to hide fragile fillings, such as feta cheese and thyme leaves, ricotta and lemon zest or pistachios and honey" Nigel Slater
A week or so ago, yet again I made Ottolenghi's Curried cauliflower and cheese filo pie which I know I have talked about before - maybe even then. Anyway both David and I agreed, that truly wonderful though the filling was, it was really the filo pastry that made it. As Anna Jones says it makes you want to "chase the last few satisfying crumbs about the plate with a fingertip."
With which Nigel Slater concurs -
"A crust so fine it will shatter into thousands of pieces when tapped with a pastry fork ... Filo’s point is its crispness. As you crunch through the crackling crust, it is something to hear as much as to taste."
So when a recent Guardian Feast Newsletter provided a link to an article by Anna Berrill - Spring fillings for filo pies I decided it was a hint to write about filo pastry and tarts. Various of the recipes which are about to follow may describe them as pies but pies - as I wrote recently are really a different thing. They have a lid. I'm talking about various ways of using filo to shelter a filling without covering it today - tarts, galettes - or maybe even pizza.
Anna Berrill' article is a useful starting point and it also made me realise that really they are yet another way of using up the leftover and the wilting. Gather together what you fancy from your fridge, and either then just surround with filo or combine or sit, on some kind of sauce. Top with other stuff - cheese, nuts, seeds, breadcrumbs - or nothing. Because:
"The wonderful thing about filo pies and tarts is that they look fancy even when they’re knocked up from just a handful of ingredients, they require little more than a green salad to please and, much like the rest of us, they really do benefit from some downtime." Anna Berrill
And if you want to make it even tastier you can flavour the butter you slather over each sheet of pastry - or oil if you are vegan - with something like honey and harissa - a suggestion from Rosie Kellett.
Filo tarts do indeed look fancy, so here is a selection from here and there. Mostly the usual suspects I will confess. I did look at the 'ordinary internet world' but did not see anything fancier - they were all just variations on the following forms. As to fillings, as I said, I'm sure you can make up your own or vary what is below. Beginning with the most straightforward in terms of construction: Chickpea and beetroot filo tart - Nigel Slater; A versatile filo pie - Anna Jones/The Guardian; Scruffy spring tart - Jamie Oliver; Butternut squash and fondue pie with pickled chillies - Yotam Ottolenghi; Egg, spinach, rocket and feta breakfast tart - Vanessa Levis/Gourmet Traveller and Beetroot and feta filo pizza - Warren Mendes/delicious.
It doesn't have to be one big tart though - it can also be small tarts: Quick goat's curd tarts - Jessica Brook/delicious. and Greek egg and feta pies - Jill Dupleix/delicious.
Filo, however, is, as Nigel says, so much more like wrapping paper than other kinds of pastry and so you can do cleverer things with it - such as: Paprika egg filo bake - Nadiya Hussain/BBC; Feta and herb filo pie - Yotam Ottolenghi/delicious.; Carrot and honey tarte tatin - Coles and Summer greeens and boursin filo rotolo - Olive Magazine/Inspiced
Or you can make indeed make a proper pie by putting a lid of filo on top, either flattish or scrunched up. Go a bit further and you then you are into scrolls and small Middle-Eastern style pastries. One thing, as always, leads to another.
Yes, short, but hopefully sweet with some dinner ideas you could try next week. It's book week week next week and I have been doing some intensive reading - hence the somewhat lazy post.
YEARS GONE BY
June 7
2022 - A moment in time - on beauty
2021 - Home-made enchiladas
2020 - Deleted
2017 - Nothing. In France - oh to be there in summertime - as the rain falls down as night falls.
留言