Layer up: spring fillings for filo pies

5 hours ago 7

Filo pies are my go-to for entertaining, but what are the best spring fillings?
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. “They’re even better at room temperature because the flavour evolves,” says Rosie Kellett, author of In for Dinner, which also makes them perfect for dodging any last-minute entertaining scrambles.

Kellett likes to wrap as many spring greens as possible in filo, along with cheese and hot honey butter. “The key to getting a really delicious filo tart or pie is a flavoured butter,” she says, so, rather than simply painting melted butter between every filo sheet so it goes nice and crisp in the oven, she also adds honey and harissa. (In a similar vein, if your pie or tart involves mushrooms, take your lead from Feast columnist Georgina Hayden, who uses butter flavoured with thyme and Marmite.)

But back to Kellett’s pie. “Wilt the greens, squeeze out any moisture, then fold in crumbled feta, a couple of eggs and season really well.” You could also throw in some caramelised onions. “Put a couple of layers of filo painted with hot honey butter in an ovenproof dish [greased with more honey butter], add a third of the filling, then repeat with more filo and filling.”

Finish with more filo, then sprinkle over a crisp, seedy topper (think everything bagel mix, or a mix of nigella, sesame and fennel seeds). “Bake until golden brown, crisp and bubbling up at the edges,” Kellett says, and that’s going to be a lot easier in the making and eating than a quiche: “For a picnic lunch, a filo pie is easily top of the list.” And, for something alongside, try tabbouleh studded with lots of fresh dill, parsley and coriander or, once summer proper hits, a tomato, pickled shallot and herb salad.

If you have plenty of herbs to hand, meanwhile, plump for this goat’s cheese, artichoke and hazelnut number by the Guardian’s Rukmini Iyer – one of her “favourite recipes for the column so far”. Blitz 30g flat-leaf parsley (stems and all), 20g mint, 20g basil, 15g chives and 50g chopped hazelnuts until smooth, then pour into a round pie dish lined with filo sheets that you’ve brushed with the oil from a jar of artichokes. Top with the artichokes themselves and teaspoonfuls of soft goat’s cheese dotted around and about, then scatter with more chopped hazelnuts and bake at 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 for 25 minutes.

For other cheesy greens, give peas a go: “Minted garden peas with grated lemon zest, whipped or baked ricotta, lots of herbs and spring onions is a really nice spring combo,” Kellett says, especially if you char the spring onions over an open flame first. “They’ll be silky, soft and sweet, and you can squidge them into the tart.”

Chantelle Nicholson, who is behind Baked by Cordia, a microbakery and garden cafe in West Sussex, would also go for peas, paired with ricotta and mint, but she’d crush them, alongside some broad beans, too, “for texture” and throw in some onion seeds. Finally, there’s asparagus, and here Nicholson would be minded to combine the spears with parsley or dill in a bechamel base, and perhaps some caramelised onions, too, because, well, “You can’t ever really go wrong with those”.