These delicious 4 cheese Fillo Kataifi Pies are a wonderful option for breakfast, lunch, dinner or an afternoon snack. The Fillo Pastry cases are easily made using a muffin tin and filled with a combination of ricotta, cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. They’re topped with Kataifi Pastry for extra crunch, rosemary and honey.
Serves 8-10
For the syrup
1 cup caster sugar
250 ml water
1 tablespoon rosewater or orange blossom water
For the Kataifi Pastry
375 g Antoniou Kataifi Pastry
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup halloumi, finely grated
1 cup fresh pecorino (not aged) or mozzarella, finely grated
¼ cup walnuts, grated
¼ cup pistachios, grated
150 g unsalted butter, melted
1 lemon, zest
Spring form tin
For this recipe we used a spring form baking tin to make it easy to remove & serve the dish.
Assembly
Be sure to push the Kataifi down the sides of the tin to enclose any cheese that may try to ooze out.
Before you begin this Kataifi Pastry recipe, take your Kataifi Pastry out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
For the syrup
Pour all of the ingredients for the syrup into a saucepan and simmer gently on a low heat for 10 minutes.
For the filling
Combine the sugar, halloumi, pecorino, walnuts, pistachios and lemon zest in a large bowl.
Preparing the Kataifi
Gently open out the Kataifi Pastry and loosen the strands. Then cut the Kataifi into chunks to shorten the length of the strands and place in a bowl. Fluff up the pastry to ensure none of the pastry is clumping together.
Pour the melted butter over the pastry, using your hands to mix through and ensure all the strands are coated with butter.
Assembly
Place a sheet of baking paper across the bottom of a springform tin. Place half of the pastry into the base of the tin, using your hands to pack the pastry down tightly.
Place the cheese mixture into the dish, keep it in the centre of the pastry so you have a boarder. Top with remaining pastry, ensuring that some goes down the sides of the tin- this will make sure that the cheese stays contained in the dish.
Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crispy, and the cheese is gooey.
Remove from the oven and carefully take out of the tin. Flip onto your serving plate and pour over the syrup to serve.
Recipe by Adrian Richardson for Good Chef Bad Chef.
Ekmek Kataifi is a traditional Greek dessert made with layers of Kataifi Pastry drenched in a sugar syrup, a layer of custard and a layer of cream. It is a celebrated dish all over Greece. This traditional Greek dessert can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for two days before eating. It is a refreshing dessert, particularly great for Summer.
