I am just emerging from the fog of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) where I have been living in many places and times. In an attempt to keep up some Greek reading during MIFF I was reduced to reading some Greek readers in simple Greek that did not require me to be surrounded by dictionaries to get a sense of what I was trying to read. They were good for the train and between films to get a quick Greek fix. But it is certainly true that for me the struggle is usually more worthwhile, and that I prefer struggling with Kavafy and Seferis to reading easy readers.
But there was, indeed, a good thing to come out of this experience. One of the readers featured a couple of recipes and one of them was a leek and cheese pie. This recipe is very different from the one in the reader. But it made me think of cooking a leek pie as I happened to have some leeks that I had bought for another purpose. And I had ricotta and all the other ingredients. My leek pie was absolutely delicious! I made it up as a pie, but you could use the filling for small triangles as well.
Ingredients
2 leeks
375 gr ricotta
200gr fetta
2 handfuls Parmesan
1 egg
1/2 tsp Sambal oelek
2 garlic clove
Phyllo pastry
Olive oil
Poppy seeds
Mode
Preheat the oven to 180c
Clean the leeks and slice finely
Peel and crush the garlic
Add Sambal oelek
Place some oil in a frying pan and add leeks, garlic and Sambal oelek
Cook until soft stirring constantly
Meanwhile place the ricotta in a bowl
Crumble the fetta by hand on top and add a couple of handfuls of grated Parmesan (or to taste)
Add the egg and stir to combine
When the vegetables are cooked add to the mixture and combine well
Using a pastry brush and olive oil line the bottom of a baking dish with about six layers of phyllo taking care to oil well between each layer
Add the cheese and leek mixture to the phyllo
Fold the phyllo over the mixture and cover with several layers of phyllo brushing with oil between each layer
Fold in the edges and oil the top layer
Sprinkle with poppy seeds
With a sharp knife cut the top of the pie into desired portions. DO NOT cut hrough the bottom of the pie
Cook for 45 minutes in 180c oven until top is crisp and golden
Leave to rest for 2-3 minutes after cooking
Then with a sharp knife cut the portions through to the bottom of the pie
Serve with salad.
