Spring greens pithivier
- Prep: 10m
- Cook: 25m
- Serves: 2
A beautiful puff pastry pie to celebrate the first of the springtime greenery - peas, broad beans, leeks and asparagus - all swathed in a herby sauce. If you don’t have asparagus to hand then runner beans chopped into chunks would do nicely too. You can add cooked pancetta or chicken to this mixture, but, for us, the real joy is making a hero of the new season’s greens.
Method
- Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Chop the leeks and add them to the butter with a pinch of salt. Sweat gently for 5 minutes until the leeks are soft and yielding but not browned.
- Chop the asparagus into 1cm rounds and add to the pan together with the broad beans and peas. Add the flour and give everything a gentle stir for a couple of minutes so the flour has a chance to cook. Next, add the milk gradually, stirring as you do, to make a thick sauce. Stir in the chopped herbs, some more salt and a twist of pepper. Check the seasoning and adjust as needed. Tip the mixture into a bowl and leave it to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C / 200°C fan / gas mark 7. For the top and bottom of the pie, cut two circles out of the puff pastry sheet – one 18cm in diameter and the other around 20cm. (Depending on the size of your pastry sheet you might find you have to cut two 18cm circles then roll one of the circles out to make it a couple of centimetres bigger than the other.)
- Place the smaller circle on a sheet of baking paper and pile the cooled filling in the middle leaving a 1cm gap around the outside. Set the larger pastry circle on top of the filling and use a little water to glue the top sheet to the spare pastry around the edge of the bottom sheet. Press the seams together with a fork and score a spiral shape in the top of the pastry. Brush the pie with a little beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and crisp on the top and on the base.
Ingredients
All to be sourced organic where possible
- 30g unsalted butter
- 1 large leek
- 100g broad beans (podded weight)
- 100g peas (shelled weight)
- 75g asparagus
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 150ml milk
- 3 tbsp chopped, leafy herbs (a mix of parsley, dill, chives and mint is ideal)
- 325g pack of ready rolled all-butter puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
