This is a rich, fabulous little pie that would easily serve as an entrée at a fancy luncheon, with a sliced beef steak tomato sitting next to it. It is simple, but depends on the quality of the ingredients, so find the freshest, best that you can. It’s worth it. We like to serve it up in our Clematis Small Oval Pie Dish.
Ingredients:
- 200 grams roughly grated real Parmesan cheese
- 1 medium 7-8” courgette (zucchini to some of us)
- 200 grams or small container good ricotta
- 3 tbsps pignoli, or pine nuts
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- Salt and pepper
- Pastry crust, rolled and cut to fit oval shape of pie dish.
How to Prepare:
Line the inside of your individual pie dish with pastry and let it wait in the frig while you assemble everything.
Grate your courgette on a large holed grater, then put the shreds in the middle of a clean cotton or linen tea towel and squeeze over the sink until no more liquid drips out. Carefully and lightly brown your pignoli over heat. These nuts turn quickly so no phone calls or wandering off! Stay over them, they only take a couple of minutes.
Beat your eggs well, add ricotta, then the Parmesan, then courgettes, then the pignoli. Season to taste. (If you worry about eating raw egg, put a tiny amount in a microwave for 5 to 10 seconds to test: you’ll have a good idea about what it needs then.)
When mixture is gently amalgamated, fill pie crust with it, top with more pignoli and parmesan shavings and pop into oven. As it is a dense and eggy mixture it will take a good 40 minutes to cook, but have a look at it at around 30 minutes. If it’s getting too brown, insert a little aluminium foil on top of pie and let cook for a further 10 minutes.
Cool a little before serving. Best served slightly warm but it also good at room temperature. Try it out and let us know what you think in the comments below.