It was the first day of school around here yesterday and it seems more important than ever to prepare delicious and healthy food for everyone and happily continue with my quest to cook as many vegetable dishes as possible. Therefore I am featuring the "Courgette and Filo Rice Pie" as my seventh post in my River Cottage Veg Everyday series today.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall comments this crispy Greek-style pie with the following words” this is based on an intriguing, delicious Greek dish that I came across in a battered old copy of a Mediterranean vegetable Cookbook by Rena Salaman. The rice steals the water from the grated courgettes and plumps up as the two cook together inside the pie”.
Finally a chance to use my trusted Le Creuset baking dish again – I have a few of these and never use them often enough it seems – this kind of dish or any other baking dish with the capacity to hold about 1.5 liters is the perfect size for this recipe.
As pretty as this pie is, it is also easy to put together and we were very pleased with the way it turned out – together with a salad, this makes the perfect weeknight dinner for the whole family.
For the filling of the pie you will need grated courgettes, long-grain rice, red onion, grated hard goat´s cheese, two eggs, fruity olive oil, some freshly chopped dill and flat-leaf parsley plus some freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. The pastry consists of ready-made filo pastry (I used ten sheets) and melted unsalted butter.
In order to make this Courgette and Filo Rice Pie you have to line your baking dish with a few sheets of filo pastry, taking care to brush each layer with a bit of melted butter. Then you place the filling into the pastry-lined dish, crumple the remaining sheets of filo pastry on top of the pie, brush with a bit more melted butter and bake for a good 45 minutes. We waited about ten minutes before cutting into the pie and devoured all of it.
This is once again a recipe with easy to find ingredients and not difficult to put together at all. We thought that this very delicious Courgette and Filo Rice Pie also looks pretty enough for company, especially when served in a nice baking dish. Once the baked pie has had a chance to rest for a while, you can easily cut into it and serve nice slices to everyone around the table - perfect as is or with a salad on the side!
If you own the English edition of this vegetable cookbook, you will find the recipe for the "Courgette and Filo Rice Pie" on page 51 in the chapter on "Comfort Food & Feasts".
- December Filo Tart with Mini Brussels Sprouts (Winterliche Filotarte mit Rosenkohlröschen) (HERE)
- Filo Tart with fresh Figs & Prosciutto (Filotarte mit frischen Feigen & Prosciutto) (HERE)
- Crispy, Crackly Apple-Almond Tart (HERE)
- Filo Tart with White Asparagus, Goat Cheese & Meadowsweet Blossoms (Filotarte mit weißem Spargel, Ziegenkäse & Mädesüßblüten) (HERE)
- Red Swiss Chard & Mushroom Filo Tart (Filotarte mit rotem Mangold & braunen Champignons) (HERE)
Andrea, this looks almost too lovely to eat in your pretty Le Creuset. I know your family gobbled this up after a first day of school. I always shed a little tear on the first day of school, then skipped and jumped for joy! :) I loved those kids but also enjoyed the peace and quiet.
ReplyDeleteChris, I do know how you felt - six weeks can be quite long sometimes. Nice that we got off to a delicious start to the school year! Hopefully there will be tons of veg still available for a long time, so I can keep up the series and our quest to fit even more veg in our diets. Thanks for the nice comment!
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ReplyDeletegorgeous beautiful delectable amazing WOWWWWWwwww. xxxxx
Kim, thanks s o much, dear! Lovely, kind and wonderful comment!
DeleteThat looks SO delicious. Love that it has a filo pastry crust.
ReplyDeleteTrishie, thank you very much - the filo pastry crust was a dream - certainly worth man yrepeats very soon with different fillings - spinach comes to mind, of course, but other veg would be nice too in this savory pie.
DeleteHi, Andrea. The flaky phyllo looks irresistible. Now I have a great IDE for dinner tonite. Thanks, doll. Hope you have a great w/end in the works. xo
ReplyDeleteColette, you would enjoy this veg recipe, I am sure of it - and so would your lovely family! All the best and thanks for commenting!
DeleteAndrea - this is so perfect in every way! My copy of the book should arrive any day now and I am very excited! This dish looks amazing and may be the first I make - courgettes are rampant in the market now, and I have the filo in the freezer. Thanks for your Facebook note - not sure if you got my reply (as you said the message function doesn't work too well) - but thank you für unser ganz spezielles Geschenk - Ich sage Ihnen, wenn es ist gekommt!
ReplyDeleteDavid, now the messages on FB seem to be working - hopefully you received my "late answer". Do let me know when you receive the book - I am very curious to hear what you think about it! This recipe was a complete success, a real comfort food-style crowd pleaser. So many courgettes in the market, so little time it seems! Thanks so much for the lovely comment, dear friend!
DeleteAndrea, this is such a different sounding dish. It is amazing that the only liquid is the eggs and the moisture from courgettes.
ReplyDeleteKaren, amazing and true - it is utterly delicious and pretty to boot!
Deleteoh yes, i love to have the whole plate
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely savory pie loaded with grated courgettes - you would enjoy this, for sure! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteGorgeous! I first noticed the unique top, and you wrote "crumple the remaining sheets of filo pastry on top of the pie". That's it? And it becomes so pretty like yours? I'm tempted to try this. And your chopped zucchini gives nice mosaic pattern when you slice it!
ReplyDeleteNami, it is just plain crumpled filo dough sheets on top - the recipe called for one, I used two instead, I had one sheet left over. And it all turned out beautiful and very pretty - I think I have discovered a new passion, I already stacked up on that filo dough!
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