Pies and tarts, sweet and savoury, are comfort food and so versatile. Pot pies don’t require a pastry base, just a crisp lid and shepherd’s pie don’t need any pastry at all. Pies and tarts are a great way to let your inspiration run free and use up whatever you have on hand to make a deliciously comforting meal.
Swiss Pastetli(Vol-au-Vent) Discover more delicious Swiss dishes on my small group food & wine tour of Switzerland! In Switzerland, pastete means pie and in Swiss adding an “i” to the end of a word forms a diminutive – so a small pie is a pastetli. Pastetli in Switzerland are what we know by the French […]
Mushroom & Cheese Pies Like this recipe? You’ll love my online British cooking class! Thanks to chef Simon Sandall who rattled off this suggestion on the spur of the moment when we were making beef Wellington together and wondering what to do with leftover mushroom duxelles and pastry off-cuts. You could always make the duxelles […]
Spungata (Ligurian Apricot Tart) Join one of my food & wine tours to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! This delicious fruit tart, called spungata in Liguria and spongata in neighbouring Emilia-Romagna, is similar to what other Italian regions call crostata. In Liguria spungata are often given as a gift when visiting friends and […]
Savoury Künefe Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Turkish cooking class inspired by Somer Sivrioglu! I love the flavours in Turkish paçanga börek – the pastirma, kasar cheese, tomato and chilli sing together. I’m also impressed by how deliciously easy sweet kunefe is to make using kadayifi pastry. So I wondered what would happen […]
Potato & Fontina Tart with Smoked Fish Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Northern Italian cooking class inspired by Alessandro Pavoni! This deliciously versatile potato & fontina tart can be vegetarian, but potatoes and smoked fish are such natural partners that I like to add smoked eel or hot-smoked rainbow trout. If using whole […]
Guinea Fowl Bisteeya Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Middle Eastern cooking class inspired by Michael Rantissi! Variously written as bisteeya, bastilla, bestela, bastila, pastilla or pastila, this Moroccan pie has many variations but is traditionally an elaborately spiced preparation of pigeon, egg, almonds and warqa pastry, which is similar to Greek fillo pastry. […]
Tarte Tatin Like this recipe? You’ll love my online French cooking class Inspired by Damien Pignolet! Tarte Tatin is one of those classics that I didn’t attempt for a long time for fear it would be too tricky. Turns out it’s super quick and easy, especially if you use a good ready-made shortcrust pastry like […]
Greek Leek & Cheese Pie (Prasopita) Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Greek cooking class Inspired by Janni Kyritsis! I’ve always loved Greek pies like spanakopita (spinach and cheese), tiropita (cheese) and hortopita (wild weeds – see video below). Then I discovered this Greek leek and cheese pie, which might just be the most […]
Bacon & Egg Pie Like this recipe? You’ll love my online cooking class Inspired by Janni Kyritsis! Bacon and egg pie is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner and, as it’s great served at room temperature, it makes ideal picnic fare. Best of all, the ingredients will be on hand in a well-stocked fridge. I […]
Tarte Flambee (Flammekueche) Like this recipe? You’ll love my online French cooking class Inspired by Damien Pignolet! This traditional flatbread from Alsace is very similar to pizza. My Alsatian friend Isabelle, who serves it whenever friends gather at her house for drinks, doesn’t use a written recipe – but this one was inspired by watching […]
