In Greek cuisine we have a range of dishes where the ingredients are bound together with flour which we call pites or pita in the singular. These are baked in the oven. Because of the absence of filo which one would normally expect to find in a ‘pita’ we call them pittes choris filo (pies without filo).
This is one such dish using butternut squash and feta, the sweetness of the vegetable with the saltiness of the feta being a marriage made in heaven.
Omit the bacon for still a flavoursome vegetarian dish.
Ingredients (serves 6-8)
- 4 rushers of bacon, roughly chopped
- 120ml extra virgin olive oil and extra for greasing.
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper, cored and chopped in small dice
- 100ml vegetable stock
- 500g grated (on the thick side of a box grater) butternut squash
- 200g Greek feta cheese, crumbled
- 3 large eggs
- 300g plain flour
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 50g parmesan cheese
Method
Bring a sauteing pan to a medium heat and add 20 ml of olive oil. Cook the chopped bacon for a few minutes and remove with a slotted spoon. Keep to the side.
Add the onion and chopped peppers to the oil and cook stirring so that they don’t burn. Add the stock, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for 15-20 minutes till the peppers are really tender. It is ok if there is a little liquid left in the pan but if more than a couple of tbsp, turn the heating up, uncover and let most of it evaporate. Leave the peppers to cool.
Preheat the oven to 1800C.
Put the grated butternut squash in a large bowl. Add the 100ml of olive oil, crumbled feta, the cool contents of the sauteing pan, the eggs, oregano, rosemary and nutmeg and give everything a good stir. Add the flour, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and using your hands work the mixture to fully incorporate everything.
Grease an ovenproof dish measing approximately 24 x 24cm and pour the mix into the dish. Bake in the middle shelf for 40 minutes. Take the dish out of the oven, roughly grate the parmesan over it and place back in the oven to bake for a further 15 minutes.
Serve warm with a green leaf salad.