I love this olive oil pastry … it is not “short” like a shortcrust pastry, it is more like a crisp flatbread, is very forgiving, easy to work with, and has a lovely texture that works well with the filling. I have also used this pastry in my Broccolini Pea and Feta Spelt Freeform Pie (see here) if that is something you would like to try too.
This recipe calls for milled parmesan and breadcrumbs … I always have these ready milled in the freezer … they keep well and it is one step that I have saved myself when using them in other recipes. For breadcrumbs I like to use sourdough as it is “meaty” but use whatever bread you have.
So if you don’t have any parmesan or breadcrumbs handy do this before starting the recipe and then go straight onto making the dough without cleaning the ™ bowl:
- You can mill up to 150g cubed parmesan cheese at any one time for 10 seconds / speed 9, keep out 100g for this recipe and freeze excess
- You can mill up to 300g cubed stale bread at any one time for 10 seconds / speed 6, check to see if it is fine enough and repeat another 5 seconds / speed 6 if necessary, keep 100g for this recipe and freeze excess
When serving the pie I like to drizzle it with Lemon Yoghurt Sauce (see here), as it gives a lovely tart finish to the sweet taste of the tomatoes and the mint.
Leftovers are lovely served cold the next day too so there no waste …
Tomato, Feta and Mint Spelt Freeform Pie (with Olive Oil Pastry)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This recipe calls for milled parmesan and breadcrumbs ... I always have these ready milled in the freezer ... they keep well and it is one step that I have saved myself when using them in other recipes. For breadcrumbs I like to use sourdough as it is "meaty" but use whatever bread you have.
So if you don't have any parmesan or breadcrumbs handy do this before starting the recipe and then go straight onto making the dough without cleaning the ™ bowl:
(a) You can mill up to 150g cubed parmesan cheese at any one time for 10 seconds / speed 9, keep out 100g for this recipe and freeze excess; and
(b) You can mill up to 300g cubed stale bread at any one time for 10 seconds / speed 6, check to see if it is fine enough and repeat another 5 seconds / speed 6 if necessary, keep 100g for this recipe and freeze excess
Author: Gina @ The Passionate Pantry
Serves: 6 people
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS FOR PASTRY
- 150g wholemeal spelt flour (or plain wholemeal flour)
- 150g white spelt flour (or plain white flour)
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- ½ tsp freshly cracked pepper
- 60g extra virgin olive oil
- 150g water, room temperature
INGREDIENTS FOR FILLING
- 500g small tomatoes (try to get a variety if possible)
- sea salt flakes to sprinkle on tomatoes
- 100g milled parmesan
- 100g fresh breadcrumbs
- 2 tbls fresh mint, chopped
- 200g crumbled feta (I used Danish)
- sea salt flakes and pepper to taste
- 1 egg, whisked
- sprinkle of nigella or sesame seeds
FOR SERVING
- Fresh mint leaves, finely sliced
- Lemon yoghurt sauce for drizzling
Instructions
METHOD FOR PASTRY
- Place all ingredients into TM bowl and mix 5 seconds / speed 5
- Then knead 1 minute to form your dough
- Place dough onto lightly floured surface (I use my bread mat as I can enclose the dough in it when resting) and bring together into a ball
- Wrap in Glad wrap or bread mat (if using) and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge
METHOD FOR FILLING
- While pastry is resting, cut tomatoes in half, place cut side up onto kitchen paper, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and allow to sit for 30 minutes … some moisture will come out of the tomatoes which is what you are looking for
- Combine the parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs and mint in a bowl and put aside
- When you are ready to roll out the pastry, turn oven on to 200 degrees, fan forced, place rack into middle of oven, and have a baking tray ready for the pie to be placed onto it for baking
- Remove dough from fridge and if using your bread mat, lift dough off it and place a piece of baking paper on top of the bread mat (this will help stop the paper moving around whilst you are rolling out the dough)
- If you are not using a bread mat, remove dough from Glad Wrap, then dab your bench with a little bit of water and place baking paper on it (the water will help keep the baking paper in place)
- Sprinkle the baking paper with a little wholemeal flour, place pastry on top and lightly sprinkle flour on top of pastry too
- Roll pastry out to a large 35cm round (14 inches – this is larger than the baking paper, but you will be folding the pastry back towards the centre of the freeform pie so it won’t end up being this large)
- Sprinkle the cheese/breadcrumb/mint mixture over base of dough leaving a border of 5cm (this will help to absorb the moisture from the filling, and give you a firmer crust on the base) NB: it is important to go right to the 5cm border so that when you turn the pastry inwards over the filling you are not folding pastry onto pastry giving you a thick crust at the edge without any filling
- Using kitchen paper, dab the top of the tomatoes to remove excess moisture
- Place the tomatoes on top of the cheese/breadcrumb/mint mixture, followed by the crumbled feta ensuring you cover the whole area right up the 5cm border
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper
- Brush the 5cm edge of the pastry with the egg wash
- Working in a circular motion fold the 5cm dough border up onto the filling leaving a wide circular hole in the centre (the egg will help the dough stick together as you work around the pie)
- Lift the baking paper with the pie on it, onto your baking tray
- Brush the pastry all over with the egg mix, then pour the rest of the egg mix into the hole in the centre so it becomes part of the filling (and you are not wasting it)
- Sprinkle seeds onto the pastry and bake for 30 minutes, turn tray around and continue for another 10 to 15 minutes until a lovely golden colour (it takes 45 minutes in my oven)
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before sprinkling with fresh mint leaves, and serve drizzled with lemon yoghurt sauce and a large green salad
Lovely 😊