Serves 4
When dairy is in season and tomatoes are sweet and fragrant, this is a great dish to share as a light lunch or even as a starter accompanied by some green leaves in a simple citrusy dressing. In Crete where I come from, one would make this dish with the delicious, thick in consistency and fluffy mizithra cheese and I source it in the UK too but for ease when I wrote this recipe for the Sunday Mirror’s mothering Sunday edition I used ricotta cheese.
Ingredients:
Base
- 75 gr of barley rusks (Dakos) or crispy oat cakes
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 50ml of orange juice
- 1 tbsp of orange zest
- pinch of salt
Filling
- 100g feta
- 300 g sweet mizithra cheese or if you cannot find use ricotta
- 100g Greek yogurt
- 2 free range eggs
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- dried oregano
- a pinch of crushed pink pepper or chilli flakes
Topping
- 300g cherry tomatoes on the vine
- half a cucumber
- a few Kalamata olives
- a quarter of a red onion sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp of capers
- a pinch of fresh oregano or basil leaves
Method:
Base
- Preheat the oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
- Put the barley rusks or oat biscuits in a plastic bag and crush to fine breadcrumbs. Add the zest and juice of the orange, the olive oil a bit of salt and mix. Line with this mixture the base of a small spring form cake tin and press to create an even layer.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden. Remove and leave to cool while you prepare the filling.
Filling
- Reduce the oven to 160C/315F/Gas 2.
- In a bowl, beat together the ricotta, Greek yogurt, the flour and the feta till smooth. Gradually add the eggs beating well between each addition. Add the oregano, chilli flakes and season with salt and pepper but take care with the salt as the feta cheese can be quite salty. Mix everything but do not whisk to avoid bubbles on the surface of the Mizithropitta.
- Pour the ricotta mix on to the biscuit base and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Check after 40 minutes. The cheesecake should be just set with a slight wobble.
To prevent the Mizithropita from cracking, cool in the oven with the oven door slightly open.
When the oven has cooled down, remove the Mizithropita and cool completely before adding the topping.
Topping
- Wash and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Place in a bowl with a bit of olive oil (just enough to coat them), a little red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
- Do the same in another two bowls one for the cucumber and one for the thin slices of the red onion and let everything marinate for at least 30 minutes to develop the beautiful flavours we associate with Greek salad.
- Use the tomatoes, the olives, cucumber, onion and capers to decorate the cheesecake finishing with some fresh oregano or basil leaves.