Friday 12 September 2014

po·ta·to leek and ri·cot·ta pas·ty

pas·ty not past·y

I try to plan our week's meals. I also try to stick to the plan. Most of the time I do because it does make things easier, but sometimes the planned meal is exactly what we don't feel like eating. Last night was a case in point. I had thought that a nice Sunday night meal would be a salad followed by a pudding - a proper pudding with custard, you know. But come mid Sunday afternoon as the weather was getting cold all we wanted was something comforting, perhaps with pastry. Definitely with pastry.

We have got quite good lately at whipping up pies when we should have been having something more like a salad. But the beauty of things like this pasty is that the filling can be improvised with what you have on hand and pastry can always be made when you need it - of course there is flour and butter in the house!
Potato, Leek and Ricotta Pasty
Serves 4

Pastry
100g unsalted butter, cold
200g plain flour
A good pinch of salt
Ice cold water

Filling
500g potatoes, any type, peeled and cut into bite size chunks
3 large leeks
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
Olive oil
150g cheese, any type, but cheddar is good, grated
250g Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta
Nutmeg, freshly grated
Salt and pepper

To Finish
A beaten egg

First make your pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a bowl, grating the butter into the bowl and mixing it into the flour then adding enough ice cold water to make a dough. Wrap the dough and put into the fridge to rest while you make the filling.

Put the potatoes into cold water with a dash of salt, bring to the boil and cook until well done. Drain (saving the water for making bread) and leave to cool in a big bowl.

While the potatoes are cooking trim the leeks and slice into fairly thin rings and wash well. Melt the butter and a dash of olive oil in a heavy pan with a lid then add the leeks and cook over a medium low heat until very soft and starting to colour. Add to the bowl of potatoes.

Preheat your oven to 190°C.

Mix the grated cheese, Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta, nutmeg, and generous salt and pepper into the potato and leek.

Roll the pastry out to a large rectangle and heap the filling down the middle long ways. brush the edges with a wee bit of water then bring the edges to the top along the filling and press well the seal then fold over and crimp prettily. Place on a metal baking sheet lined with baking paper and brush with the beaten egg. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes or until looking lovely and golden.

Cut into slices to serve. Enjoy!
And if you did still want that salad you can always have it along side . . .

5 comments:

BB said...

Dear blogmaster. I need a recipe that takes less than 20 minutes and can be made from bacon, spninach, maybe, pasta, maybe tinned stuff, maybe pumpkin. Hmm and I need it now :)

Lonnie - Dinnerware said...

This looks so beautiful. Very nicely done. I love this.Thanks.

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