Cavatappi in Shopski Style Feta

Adapting the Shopski Style Baked Feta - a beloved dish from Bulgaria into a pasta. Other than the time involved in pasta cooking, there’s no additional active cook time, everything happens in the oven! You can totally use roasted peppers from jars or pre-pickled chiles but I insist on trying everything homemade at least once. Feel free to use any short pasta such as farfale, rigatoni or gigli and give this easy and indulgent pasta dish a go!

Ingredients (Serve 3-4)

6 sweet red peppers (sub 2 red bell peppers, slit lengthwise
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1 tsp crushed Black Pepper
30g Red Onion, thinly sliced
250g Cherry Tomatoes, Whole
1 Serrano Pepper pickled in vinegar and salt overnight, chopped (de-seed to reduce heat)
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1 tsp Cumin Seeds, ground
1 tsp Chile flakes
2 tsp Sweet Paprika
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
230g or 1/2 lb block of Sirene or Bulgarian Feta (substitute with Greek Feta)
1 tsp Runny Honey
1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
220g Cavatappi pasta, cooked based on package instructions

Garnish
1 tsp Baharat Spice Blend + 1/2 tsp Aleppo Pepper Flakes (regular red pepper flakes is fine)
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Breadcrumbs

*Optional: fresh picked oregano leaves (substitute with Basil)

Directions
🥣 Pre-heat oven to 425F. In a large baking dish, combine red peppers, olive oil, salt and black pepper. Mix well. Bake for 15-17 mins, take it out and turn down the oven temp to 400F

🥣 Remove the peppers, when cool enough to handle roughly chop them and toss it back into the baking dish. Now add remaining ingredients except EVOO and honey into the dish and give it a good mix. Make space in the center and put the block of Feta. Drizzle EVOO and honey on top of the block

🥣 Bake for 20 mins and then crank up the temp to 425F and bake for another 5-7 mins. While this is baking, prepare the garnish - in a small pan, combine spices, oil and breadcrumbs, Fry on medium flame for 2-3 mins or until golden brown and aromatic. Keep it aside until ready to serve.

🥣 Once out of the oven, the feta should look caramelised on top and feel soft in the middle. While hot, vigorously mix the feta with everything else to make a thick creamy sauce. Then quickly transfer the cooked pasta into baking dish and mix until pasta is well coated

🥣 Sprinkle the spiced breadcrumb topping alongwith fresh oregano (if using) and serve straight in the baking dish

Sweet Potato Feta Mini Galettes with Harissa Honey

The delectable trio of Sweet, Salty & Spicy. These are like my pantry staples but surprisingly I never thought about combining in one dish!!! Right off the bat, I thought about taking this opportunity to showcase my love for making savory galettes from scratch. I started exploring these rustic freeform tarts back in early 2020 and have been hooked - I realized that even though I make these often my Insta feed has been remiss of them!

So here I’m sharing my all-time favorite Spelt & Crème Fraîche pastry wrapped around a herby ricotta feta filling topped with fanned out Sweet Potato discs. Finished with a generous drizzle of sticky and vibrant Rose Harissa infused Honey and Orange Juice caramel sauce.

*Note: I have successfully tested the vegan pastry dough with Super Cold Earth Balance brand Vegan Butter sticks and Tofutti Brand Sour Cream with 1:1 substitution for Salted Butter and Crème Fraîche. And for egg wash whisk 2 tbsp Oat Milk with 2 tsp Maple Syrup.

Ingredients (makes 8 mini galettes)
Spelt Pastry Dough
170g Plain Flour or All Purpose Flour (I have successfully used 320g King Arthur GF Measure to Measure flour for 100% GF crust)
150g Spelt Flour or Whole Wheat flour (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill Spelt Flour)
20g Polenta or Coarse Cornmeal (I use Quaker Oats brand)
12g Granulated Sugar
2g Fine Sea Salt
3g Crushed Black Pepper
125g Super Cold Salted Butter cut into small cubes (for best results freeze for 30 mins)
2 large ice cubes
4-6 tbsp Super Cold Créme Fraîche (substitute with cold sour cream)

Filling
120g Ricotta (I prefer whole milk but part skim works fine)
55g Crumbled Feta
Oregano leaves from 3 sprigs
Sweet Basil leaves from 2-3 sprigs
1 tsp Chile Flakes
1/2 tbsp dehydrated Harissa Powder (totally optional, or else a hot spice blend of your choice)
1 large egg beaten (plus leftover egg wash if using beaten egg to glaze the pastry)
1 tsp Olive Oil
Pinch of salt and sugar

245-250g Sweet Potato, sliced into 1/8” thick discs (I used Mandoline but knife is fine too. If you end up with thicker slices then just fry them in a skillet for 10 mins with a bit of oil and covering every now and then so that they are par-cooked)

Drizzle
1/2 tbsp Rose Harissa (regular harissa is fine too)
1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
4 tbsp Orange Juice(OJ)
Pinch of Fine Sea Salt
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Runny Honey (sub Maple Syrup)

1 Egg, Beaten or 4 tbsp Milk for glazing

Chopped scallion greens or Picked Oregano leaves for garnish

Directions
🥧 Dump first 6 dough ingredients in a food processor, give it a whiz for 30 seconds so that all dry ingredients are well mixed. Then add remaining dough ingredients (start with 4tbsp créme fraîche & increase to get the dough to come together) and whiz until a playdoh like mass is formed


🥧 Make a rough ball of dough (don’t worry if it’s breaking too much, a bit of patchwork goes a long way in Pastry crusts). Roll it out into a rough rectangle of 1/2” thickness. Now fold it into half, another fold in clockwise direction and one more fold in that direction to get a rough square piece. Now pat into a disc (doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped). Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 mins to 3 days. Can be frozen at this stage for upto months

🥧 If making these galettes then, bring the dough out and let it come to a state where it can be easily manipulated. Divide equally into eight pieces & form into balls. On a clean work surface, roll each ball into a 4-5” disc, transfer onto a silicone baking mat or parchment (I prefer using bench scrapers to pick up & transfer)

🥧 Dump all filling ingredients into blender and pulse until smooth & creamy. Whisk All drizzle ingredients with 3 tbsp OJ & 1 tbsp Honey, microwave for 2 mins

🥧 Pre-heat oven to 420F. Spread 2 tbsp of filling in the center of each rolled out pastry disc. Top with 10-12 pieces of sweet potato discs overlapping each other, fold the pastry edges so that it’s encased properly. Brush the sweet potatoes with drizzle and exposed pastry with either beaten egg or milk. Bake for 25-35 mins or until golden brown

🥧 Meanwhile, add 1 tbsp OJ and 1 tsp Honey to the leftover drizzle and microwave for 2-3 mins or until it’s slightly sticky & red colored caramel like. Once baked, top the galettes with this sticky drizzle and garnish with greens. Enjoy!