Erbazzone is a traditional savoury pie with fresh greens and cheese, that is popular in the province of Reggio Emilia
My plant based Erbazzone is a light, crisp, thin savoury pie made from a shortcrust on the bottom and puff pastry on the top filled with fresh greens, and a plant based cheese. It makes for a tasty snack or lunch. Perfect for a buffet.
Rinse and roughly chop the rainbow chard (this is optional, just add 200g more spinach if you haven’t got any chard).
Take the 2 packets of Short crust pastry and the 2 packets of puff pastry out of the fridge (20 mins before you need them) and allow them to warm, otherwise they crack when you try to unroll them.
You can use a vegan hard cheese and grate it, but I don’t currently like vegan cheese due to the coconut. So I decided to try Sacla’s ready made vegan cheese sauce, which didn’t use coconut. However it was a bit bland so I pimped it up with a large dollup of dijon mustard and a couple of tablee spoons of nooch. I added cornflour so it sets when its cooked.
Pour the vegan cheese sauce into a bowl and mix in the nutritional yeast, mustard and the corn flour until completely smooth again. (The cornflower with help the vegan cheese sauce set when it cooks)
Slice the onions and garlic
Put the defrosted spinach and chard into a large pan and on a medium heat cook to wilt the chard and to dry out the spinach.
Place on a large colander and squeeze out all the liquid.
In a pan over high heat, put 1 tbsp plant butter and add the onion and sliced garlic cloves. Cook for several minutes.
When the onion and garlic are browned, add the chilli flakes, and the cooked spinach and season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat, and let them simmer for a few minutes.
Stir in the dried oregano and let the mixture cool.
Next, add the pine nuts and the plant based cheese mix (or the grated hard plant cheese) and stir to mix it all in. Check the seasoning.
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Line 3 baking trays with parchment paper, and drizzle both with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and rub it all over.
Roll the out shortcrust pastry and lay onto the baking trays
spread on top of the pastries a thin layer of the spinach cheese mixture, evenly distributing the filling leaving a border around the pastries.
Roll out the puff pastry sheets and place it on top of the mixture in order to cover it completely.
Use a fork to seal the top pasty against the border of the bottom shortcrust pastry.
Still using the fork, pierce a lots of air holes tall over the top of the pastry.
Brush the top with olive oil.
Bake the erbazzones for 45 minutes or until the pastry reaches a crisp golden colour – then it is ready.
Remove them from the oven and allow to cool for 20 mins and then cut with a serrated knife into squares ready to serve.
I mistook shortcrust for puff, so the pictures actually show the pie with shortcrust on both top and bottom, which works, it’s just that I like puff pastry.
Can be served hot or cold.
Erbazzone
Ingredients
- 2 shortcrust pastry plant based
- 2 puff pastry plant based
- 500 g frozen spinach
- 200 g rainbow chard
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp Oregano
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 2 onions
- 130 g plantbased cheese sauce
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 2 tbsp plant butter
Method
- Defrost the spinach
- Rinse and roughly chop the rainbow chard (this is optional, just add 200g more spinach if you haven’t got any chard)
- Take the 2 packets of Short crust pastry and the 2 packets of puff pastry out of the fridge (20 mins before you need them) and allow them to warm, otherwise they crack when you try to unroll them.
- You can use a vegan hard cheese and grate it, but I don’t currently like vegan cheese due to the coconut. So I decided to try Sacla’s ready made vegan cheese sauce, which didn’t use coconut. However it was a bit bland so I pimped it up with a large dollup of dijon mustard and a couple of tablee spoons of nooch. I added cornflour so it sets when its cooked.
- Pour the vegan cheese sauce into a bowl and mix in the nutritional yeast, mustard and the corn flour until completely smooth again. (The cornflower with help the vegan cheese sauce set when it cooks)
- Slice the onions and garlic
- Put the defrosted spinach and chard into a large pan and on a medium heat cook to wilt the chard and to dry out the spinach.
- Place on a large colander and squeeze out all the liquid.
- In a pan over high heat, put 1 tbsp plant butter and add the onion and sliced garlic cloves. Cook for several minutes.
- When the onion and garlic are browned, add the chilli flakes, and the cooked spinach and season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat, and let them simmer for a few minutes.
- Stir in the dried oregano and let the mixture cool.
- Next, add the pine nuts and the plant based cheese mix (or the grated hard plant cheese) and stir to mix it all in. Check the seasoning.
- Preheat the oven to 180 C
- Line 3 baking trays with parchment paper, and drizzle both with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and rub it all over.
- Roll the out shortcrust pastry and lay onto the baking trays
- spread on top of the pastries a thin layer of the spinach cheese mixture, evenly distributing the filling leaving a border around the pastries.
- Roll out the puff pastry sheets and place it on top of the mixture in order to cover it completely.
- Use a fork to seal the top pasty against the border of the bottom shortcrust pastry.
- Still using the fork, pierce a lots of air holes tall over the top of the pastry.
- Brush the top with olive oil.
- Bake the erbazzones for 45 minutes or until the pastry reaches a crisp golden colour – then it is ready.
- Remove them from the oven and allow to cool for 20 mins and then cut with a serrated knife into 20 squares per tray, ready to serve.
- I mistook shortcrust for puff, so the pictures actually show the pie with shortcrust on both top and bottom, which works, it’s just that I like puff pastry.
- Can be served hot or cold.
Nutrition
(All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more).