Leek and Goat Cheese Pie

Home Made is a beautiful picture book filled with recipes I seldom make. Flipping through its pages makes me wish I spent a semester in Amsterdam, contemplating windmills and wooden shoes. I was drawn to an overhead shot of “long leek pie”. It seems to epitomize everything I imagine European lifestyle cooking to be. It’s casusal-chic, two glasses of chilled wine with lunch, sitting outside at a cafe, or at your friend’s light and airy flat, there’s a small dog somewhere, shabby-cute musicians are busking for change, you discuss art and Rimbaud and philosophy and fall asleep in the dappled sunlight, under a trellis. I don’t know why your friends’s flat has a trellis, it just does. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy probably put it there. If you like leeks, you’ll love this crunchy-savory-salty-sweet-tangy pie, perfect as a light dinner or to accompany roast chicken, leg of lamb, or pork chops. Dine al fresco on this unseasonably warm and wonderful evening with friends and a bottle or two of wine. It’s almost as good as a summer spent abroad.

Leek and Goat Cheese Pie
Adapted from a recipe in “Home Made“, by Yvette Van Boven

Ingredients:

• 2 medium-sized leeks, thoroughly washed
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Pat of butter
• Salt and pepper
• 1 package (2 sheets) puff pastry
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Method:

Thaw puff pastry on the counter whilst you prepare the leeks. Remove the leek’s dark green stalks and layer of outer leaves. Halve them lengthwise and cut each into three pieces. Simmer leeks in wine and butter seasoned with salt and pepper, about twenty minutes. Remove from liquid and pat dry.

Fold each piece of puff pastry in half, layer one atop the other, and roll the dough into a rectangle. Use the back of a knife to score the pastry like a picture frame, making a one-inch border. Nestle leeks into the dough. Sprinke with goat cheese and brush the edges with egg white. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for approximately twenty-five minutes.

Tagged as: side dish, vegetarian

About the Author: Jillian Bedell

Jillian grew up in Connecticut, went to university in Boston, college in New Haven, did some post-grad soul searching in New York, exiled herself to Mexico, married her longtime sweetheart, and lived in a house on the ocean. She suspected Maine might be the perfect place to raise a family, so she came back home to New England two years ago. Now a mom to Violet Maeve and living in Rockland, where she hopes to settle for a good, long while, Jillian reads, writes, walks, and practices Nia, when not watching Malcolm photograph sandwiches.