Autumnal Filo Tart with Butternut Squash and Pear

I got the idea for this last year ago on a German blog and now that autumn's here again I'm finally trying it out as I love the combination of sweet and savoury. Unfortunately, I can't find ready-made pizza dough in British supermarkets so have resorted to filo pastry on several occasions. It's a little more work because every sheet has to be oiled but it's faster than making a yeast dough from scratch and really tasty. You can make this using hokaido or other seasonal pumpkins, I just find them too floury when baked. I think some rosemary sprigs would work really well with this, too.

1 packet of filo pastry
1/2 medium butternut squash
1 large or 2 small pears
1/2 red onion
200 g soured cream* or crème fraîche
50-60 g pancetta
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch of flat parsley
1 large garlic clove
extra virgin olive oil


1. Peel the butternut squash and onion and slice very thinly (2-3 mm). Cut the pancetta into small strips. Leave the pear for now.

2. Finely chop the parsley. Squeeze the garlic into the cream, season with pepper and salt, add the chopped parsley and mix.

3. Layer the filo pastry onto a baking sheet or pizza try oiling each layer, including any overhangs. I like to roll up the overhang giving it one last brush with the oil and enjoy its crispiness when cooked.

4. Spread on the cream and herb mix. Scatter the pumpkin, onion and about 2/3 of the pancetta over the top. Now, core and thinly slice the pear. Add with the remaining panchetta. Season and drizzle with a little olive oil.

 5. Bake at 200° C, gas mark 5 for 20-30 minutes until the squash is cooked.

*British soured cream has a higher fat content then, say, the soured cream available in Germany (10%). It doesn't state how much but it certainly has lots more calories and doesn't curdle when used like this.

Yoghurt and Oil Dough

Fresh Pea Quiche

In Germany, many cakes and savoury dishes are made with a quark and oil dough, which is a lot lighter than a shortcrust pastry. However, finding quark in the UK is really difficult. 20 years ago I would have bought French fromage frais but nowadays I can only find 0% fat fromage frais, which means this product has thickeners added to it. And I refuse to buy processed foods like that. Ricotta might be a good alternative but it's expensive (in comparison) so I've experimented with yoghurt and I've finally come up with a recipe that work. Only, it was a wee bit too much dough for my 26 cm flan dish and as you can see there's rather a lot of pastry for my fresh pea quiche. But that's okay, I'll reduce the amount of dough next time or buy a larger tin. It's delicious at any rate.

200 g strong white bread flour
100 g wholemeal flour
15 g baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 tbsp olive oil
200 g yoghurt/Greek-style yoghurt/soured cream

Combine all the ingredients either by hand or using the kneading hooks of an electric mixer/the kneading knife of a food processor. Roll out and line a lightly greased 30 cm cake tin.

Top with a quiche mix of your choice.