Do you like drooling over perfectly styled food pictures on Pinterest just as much as I do? Well, then you must recognise the feeling of thorough dissappointment when you click through and find out that the recipe is waaaaaaaaay too complicated for your taste. Now, don't get me wrong, I like cooking as much as the next girl (certainly when there's a glass of red wine involved), but too much of a good thing is still too much, which is why I like to keep my cooking short and sweet, and easy, and with not too many dishes to wash afterwards.
Luckily I was never the type for following recipes anyway (how very rebellious of me, ey?), and over the years I have become quite the pro in hacking 'em and turning them into a lazy-cook approved version. Like this pea, herb and mozzarella pie by Nigel Slater for example.
The original recipe includes the making of your own pastry. Great! Yummy! But when you come home from a hard days work, finding a ready-made roll of puff pastry in your fridge is just way more comforting. Then follows the time consuming proces of grating your courgettes, sprinkling them with salt, leaving them for half an hour in a colander and then squeezing the juice out with your hands. The preparing of the leak, on the other hand - for some reason still unclear - involves a piece of baking parchement?! No way rosé that I was gonna bother with that! So, here's how I did the trick:
- ready-made puff pastry
- 2 leeks
- 1 onion
- 1 large courgette
- 2 balls of mozarella
- 200g of peas (deepfrosted so that you don't have to bother with podding)
- a handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp of dried thyme
- 1 lump of butter
Preheat the oven at 180°C. Roll out your puff pastry in a round baking tin and make some tiny holes with a fork in the bottom. Cut your onions, leeks and courgette. Melt a lump of butter in a large pan and add the onions. Once they're glazy add the leek, followed by the courgette and a few minutes later the peas. Stir in the thyme and most of the mint. Put on a lid and stir every few minutes until done. Throw everything in a colander to get rid of excess moist. Then transfer the lot onto your pastry. Tear the mozzarella in pieces and divide them evenly over your pie, slightly pushing them between the veggies. Slide in the oven for 30-35 mins. Sprinkle on the rest of the mint right before serving.
So tell me, do you cook by the book? Or do you improvise and simplify like yours truly?
