I have simply spent a contented afternoon within the kitchen making a free-form pie, teasing the sides of the pastry loosely over the filling like a badly wrapped parcel and baking it with out a dish or pie plate. I like this relaxed model of baking. Free from the constraints of a dish or tin, the pie is left to seek out its personal form on a baking sheet within the oven. It’s a methodology that works with plums, apples, slices of pumpkin or potato – agency fillings that preserve their form slightly than these which can be delicate and saucy.
This type of pie is extraordinarily good with onions you’ve gotten cooked till deeply bronze and delicate sufficient to crush between finger and thumb. Add ribbons of sauerkraut to stability their sweetness and you might be in enterprise. Layer them with grating of sharp cheese and a handful of chopped nuts and you’ve got a pie to recollect.
Leaf fall has additionally nudged me (fortunately) within the route of pasta suppers. First off was a dish of extensive ribbons of pappardelle tossed with buttered chard leaves, candy onions and smoked paprika. A cracking recipe for a cold autumn day.
Sauerkraut, fontina and walnut galette
By all means use a metallic pie plate for those who discover it simpler than baking the pie on a baking sheet. If you want, you can make a vegetarian gravy for this, including inventory to browned onions and root greens, thyme and bay, and letting it simmer for an hour. Serves 8
For the pastry:
plain flour 250g
salt a big pinch
caraway seeds 1 tsp
butter 150g, chilly
egg yolk 1, crushed
iced water 2 tbsp
For the filling:
onions 2, medium to giant
olive oil 3 tbsp
sauerkraut 250g
fontina 225g, or different agency grating cheese
parsley leaves 10g
walnuts 100g
grain mustard 1 tbsp
egg 1, crushed
Make the pastry: put the flour in a big mixing bowl and add the salt and caraway seeds. Reduce the butter into small items, add to the flour, then rub the 2 collectively along with your thumbs and fingertips. (Alternatively use a meals processor.) When you’ve gotten a texture that resembles recent breadcrumbs, stir within the crushed egg yolk and sufficient iced water (2-3 tbsp) to deliver all the pieces collectively right into a delicate, rollable dough. Wrap and go away within the fridge to relaxation for about half-hour.
Get on with making the filling: peel the onions and finely slice them into rings. Set the oven at 180C/fuel mark 6.
Heat the oil in a deep pan set over a reasonable warmth, add the onions and allow them to cook dinner till pale gold and delicate. This can take 25 minutes, stirring often. Add the sauerkraut to the softened onions. Coarsely grate the cheese and put aside. Roughly chop the parsley and the walnuts, then stir into the softened onions with the mustard. Put aside whilst you kind the tart.
Line a big baking sheet with baking parchment. Take away the pastry from the fridge and roll right into a circle 30cm in diameter. Rigorously carry on to the lined baking sheet. Stir the grated cheese, reserving some for later, into the onions and sauerkraut, then season with a little bit salt and black pepper. Pile the filling on to the pastry leaving a big hole, about 6-7cm, across the edge.
Fold the sting of the pastry up and barely over the filling. Brush the pastry rim with crushed egg. Scatter the remainder of the cheese excessive, place within the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes till golden.
Go away the tart to relaxation for quarter-hour or so earlier than slicing and serving.
Pappardelle with greens and yoghurt
When you wished to maintain dairy out of this recipe, you can toss the pasta and greens with a little bit chilli oil as a substitute. Serves 2-3
onions 2, medium to giant
olive oil 3 tbsp
chard leaves 250g, or use beetroot tops
spinach 200g
pappardelle 200g
garlic 2 cloves
butter 50g
pure yoghurt 100ml
smoked paprika a little bit
Peel the onions and lower them into skinny rings. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole or a deep-sided frying pan over a reasonable warmth, add the onions and allow them to cook dinner for about 20-25 minutes, stirring sometimes, till delicate, shiny and deep gold in color. Take away the onions from the pan and put aside.
Wash the chard leaves or beetroot tops, then return the onion pan to the warmth (you’ll be able to wipe it out if you want, however you actually don’t have to), then add the leaves, nonetheless moist from washing. Cowl tightly and allow them to cook dinner in their very own steam for a minute or two, then flip the leaves over, cook dinner for a minute longer, then take away and drain.
Repeat with the spinach. Gently squeeze the water from the chard and spinach, then roughly chop and add them to the onions.
Carry a deep pan of water to the boil. Salt it generously, then drop within the pappardelle and go away to cook dinner for about 7 minutes or till the ribbons of pasta are tender.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Soften the butter within the empty pan during which you cooked the greens over a reasonable warmth, add the garlic and let it cook dinner for a few minutes till it begins to show golden, then add the chopped leaves.
Drain the pasta, leaving about 50ml of water within the pan, then toss it with the onions and greens.
Switch the onions, greens and pasta to shallow bowls, then trickle with yoghurt and mud with a little bit smoked paprika.
Comply with Nigel on Instagram @NigelSlater
