Crazy Vegetable Pies- Three Potatoes and Ratatouille

This vegetable pie might look like a crazy, time-consuming idea, but, believe me, it's neither. It's very simple and doesn't require special tools or ingredients. Additional time can be saved by using already baked pastry casing.

There are two varieties: ratatouille- like pie with cheesy filling and crispy potato pie with white, orange and purple coloured potatoes.

Can be eaten cold or warm.

Pastry:

This recipe is already a bit too time-consuming, so I never bother with making pastry from scratch. I find that the store-bought works great. If you want, you can of course make your own pastry or use ready to roll pastry.

I'm using already baked, 7 inch, shallow pastry case.

Since I used it before, I know that each pastry case fits 1.5 cups of filling. And since I only need to fill the pastry case half-way through, I will need 3/4 cup of filling for each pastry case.

It's important to know the volume of your pie dish, so you can make enough filling. Best method is to fill the empty pie dish with something (like water, salt, beans) to the brim and then use measuring cups to establish the volume of the dish. You will only need enough filling to cover 50% of the dish, so calculate accordingly.

Filling:

Yield: 1.5 cup (enough for two 7 inch pastry casings)

• Ricotta or goat's cheese: 250g
• Grated mozzarella: 150g (regular size mozzarella ball)
• Egg yolks: 2
• Grated Parmesan: 20g (roughly 4 tablespoons)
• Fresh or dried herbs: I used fresh, chopped oregano
• Salt and pepper

Potato spiral:

• 1 large sweet, orange potato
• 1 large white potato
• 1 large purple potato

Vegetable spiral:

• 3 aubergines
• 3 courgettes
• 2 thick carrots

You might have to use a bit more or a bit less, it all depends on the size of your pie.

There will be quite a lot of leftover vegetable pieces, so reserve them and use them in other recipes like curry or stew.

Additionally:

• 2TBS olive oil (or melted butter) mixed with 1/2 tsp fine salt
• pastry brush

Mix all ingredients and spread them on the baked pastry case.

Wash and peel your vegetables, cut off the ends.

Use mandolin of vegetable peeler to slice thin, long ribbons.

If using shallow pastry case, you might want to trim your ribbons to keep them all equal in size.

Soft veggies like courgette and aubergine can be used straight away, but tougher ones, like carrots will need a few minutes of cooking to soften and become more pliable. Put carrot ribbons in a bowl of boiling water and cook them for 2 min in the microwave.

Start the assembly by rolling a small spiral on the worktop, make it tight and try to get it as big as your palm. Transfer it onto the pastry and lightly press into the cheese mixture.

Continue arranging vegetable ribbons around the spiral. Press each ribbon into the cheese mixture to keep it secure.

For the potato pie I decided to let them peak out of the pastry case to get them crispy in the oven.

Slice the potatoes and cook them (each colour separately) in the microwave for 3-4 min. Arrange them on top of the cheese mixture in a spiral or parallel pattern.

Brush the top of the pie with a mixture of olive oil (or melted butter) and fine salt.

Both pies can be cooked the same way - 350°F (180°C) for 40 min.

If you are making the potato variety and want the tops to be crispy, you might want to increase the temperature to 400°F (200°C) during the final 15 min.