Courgette, Ricotta & Lemon Zest Pie in a Parmesan Crust with Smoked Salmon

Courgette, ricotta and lemon zest pie in a parmesan shortcrust served with warm smoked salmon flakes and a simple tomato salad.

A long sentence for a simple dish! I used half the courgette you see in the images for this. I ribboned the courgette until the soft core, which I chopped up into small pieces to sauté later on for the filling. But you can also use a whole normal courgette for this.

The parmesan shortcrust pastry I made a few weeks ago as well. Inspired by a recipe from @donnahay. The changes I made: add some finely chopped rosemary and blind bake for 15 minutes at 200 C before adding the filling.

Courgette, Ricotta & Lemon Zest Pie in a Parmesan Crust with Smoked Salmon

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Dinner, lunch
By Saffron & Donna Hay Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • Shortcrust Parmesan Pastry
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup (80g) finely grated parmesan
  • 1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
  • 150g cold butter, chopped
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp cold milk
  • Pie filling
  • 2 Courgettes
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, grated
  • 250 g ricotta
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 handfuls grated cheese
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 handful chopped parsley
  • 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
  • Sides (optional)
  • 3-4 good qaulity tomatoes
  • 2 filets oven smoked salmon
  • Extra needed
  • 2 sheets non stick baking paper
  • Rolling pin
  • Blind baking beans

Instructions

The pastry (recipe by Donna Hay)

1

Preheat oven to 180ºC.

2

Place the flour, cheese, rosemary, butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process for 1–2 minutes or until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3

Add the egg and milk and blend for 2 minutes or until a smooth dough forms.

4

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5

Roll half the pastry out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 3mm-thick.

6

Line a 31cm-round lightly greased pie tin with the pastry.

7

Place a piece of baking paper in the pie tin and add the baking beans (see tip below).

8

Blind bake for 15 minutes.

Make the filling

9

Prepare the courgette by cutting in half and scooping out the middle. Set this aside.

10

Ribbon the rest of the courgette with a mandolin, a vegetable peeler or a cheese slicer like I did (see tip below).

11

Add the chopped core of the courgette and fry for a few minutes until starting to caramelize. Season with pepper and salt and set aside.

12

In the meantime in a big bowl mix 250 grams of ricotta with 3 eggs, 3 handfuls of grated cheese, zest of 1 lemon, chopped parsley and a handful of pine nuts, then add the courgette onion mix.

13

Pour the filling into the blind baked pastry and top with the courgette ribbons.

14

Bake at 200°C for 30 minutes until the filling has set and the courgette starting to brown.

To serve

15

I served it with a simple tomato salad and some flaked oven smoked salmon over the top, but you can leave this out if keeping it vegetarian.

Tips

16

I used rice for blind baking because I didn't have beans. Blind baking is optional by the way, Donna Hay doesn't do it in her recipe, I just like it when the crust is a bit crunchier.

17

Slicing the courgette in ribbons is optional, it looks all pretty and fancy laid out in a circle, but it will taste just as good with just simply sliced courgette. So if you don't feel like the hassle then just slice the courgette into 3 mm slices and mix them with the ricotta filling.

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