Spinach & Ricotta Pasties

Savoury puffs of delight

Hello! It’s National Pie Week here in the UK, and I have two recipes to share with you. While neither of them is what you’d call a traditional pie, I decided it was far more important to bake and eat what I felt like than to be constrained by the rules of what does and doesn’t technically count as a pie.

The first recipe I’m sharing is for spinach and ricotta puffs, in the UK, we’d call these pasties, while in North America, I think they’d be known as hand pies. Either way they’re flakey, savoury, delicious and come together surprisingly quickly, even faster if you don’t bother making your own puff pastry!

And for paid subscribers, I’m also sharing a recipe for a rhubarb, blood orange and fennel tart. If that sounds like something you’d like, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll receive an exclusive recipe every week, plus access to the full archive of over 100 thoroughly tested cake and dessert recipes. Most importantly, you'll be helping support me so I can continue creating and sharing recipes! 🩷

Rhubarb, blood orange & fennel tart. Click here to make it.

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Spinach & Ricotta Puffs

Ingredients - makes 6 large or 8 small pasties

Rough Puff

125g strong/bread flour

125g plain flour

5g salt

250g cold butter, cut into 1cm cubes

110g cold water

1/2 tsp white vinegar

Spinach & Ricotta Filling

300g spinach, you can use fresh or a mixture of fresh and frozen

150g ricotta

Zest of 1/2 a lemon

60g egg (1 large egg)

20g grated parmesan

40g grated mozzarella

2 grated or crushed cloves of garlic (or more if you want!)

Freshly grated nutmeg (to taste, I used about 1/4 tsp)

Freshly ground pepper (to taste, I used about 1/2 tsp)

Salt to taste

Egg Wash

1 egg yolk

Pinch of salt

1tsp cream or milk

Mixed sesame seeds to sprinkle (optional)

Method - Rough Puff

1. Weigh all of the dry ingredients and give them a quick mix to combine.

   Add the cold butter—it should be diced into approximately 1cm cubes, but there’s no need to be super precise.

2. Mix the butter and dry ingredients until the butter just starts to break up. This can be done either by hand or in a stand mixer. We still want nice big chunks of butter, so don’t mix it too much at this point.

3. Add the cold water and vinegar and mix briefly. If you’re using a stand mixer, the dough will still look quite dry, and you’ll have a lot of flour at the bottom of the bowl—this is easier to incorporate by hand, so be careful not to over-mix.

4. Tip everything out onto the worktop and lightly knead until it comes together into a shaggy dough. It will be lumpy and have some dry bits—this isn’t an attractive dough (not yet anyway!).

5. Form it into a square or rectangle. The better your starting shape, the easier it’ll be to roll and fold later, so try to get it relatively even.

   

6. Wrap in cling film or a sandwich bag and rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

7. Once rested, roll the dough out, keeping it as rectangular as possible. I do this by nudging the sides in with the rolling pin every so often (see gif below).

8. Roll it out until you have a nice long rectangle.

9. Do one single fold by folding the bottom third of the pastry over the middle third, then fold the top third over so that you have three even layers of pastry.

10. Rotate the pastry by 90°, roll it out again, and perform another single fold. If you’re working in a very hot kitchen, you might need to chill the pastry before doing the second fold, but I find I can usually do it straight away.

    

11. Once you’ve done 2 single folds, wrap and rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

12. When the pastry has been resting for at least an hour repeat steps 10 and 11. In total you will have done 4 single folds at which point it’s done!

13. Chill in the fridge for an hour before rolling.

14. Cut into two even pieces and roll each piece to approximately 35 x 35cm.

15. Rest the rolled dough in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Method - Spinach & Ricotta Filling

1. Cook your spinach—how you do it doesn’t matter. You can blanch, sauté, or whatever you fancy. Don’t judge me, but I actually microwave mine to save on washing up.

2. Drain as much water as possible from the cooked spinach by pressing it in a sieve or colander, then sandwich it between layers of kitchen roll and press until all the excess liquid has been removed.

3. Roughly chop the spinach, making it as smooth or as chunky as you like, and add the ricotta.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix, taste for seasoning.

   

Method - Filling & Baking

1. Cut the pastry into 16cm discs (or squares if you’d rather, I did both and both worked well).

2. Roll the disc out slightly more so that you have a large oval (see gif).

3. Fold the oval in half so that you know where the centre is.

4. Add about 70g of filling to one half leaving at least 15mm of pastry around the edge.

   

5. Brush the edges with cold water before folding it over and pressing to seal.

6. Using the back of a knife, press the edges of the pastry in, this just helps to seal them and looks pretty!

7. Brush with the egg wash, score and make a small hole with a sharp knife to let the steam escape.

8. Sprinkle the edge with mixed sesame seeds and they’re ready to bake!

   

9. To bake, preheat the oven to 180°C(fan)/356°F.

10. Place the pasties on lined baking trays and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crisp.

11. These will keep for up to three days in the fridge.

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