Cheese And Dill Romanian Savoury Pie

Transylvanian Savoury Pie and a step back in time when grandma was making the best food in the world.

In our human nature lies the desire to recreate pleasant past memories, especially the ones with food. It’s comforting and soothing for the soul, and probably the best way not to completely lose ourselves in the busyness of our lives.

I feel this post should honor our grandparents, I don’t have them with me anymore, and today I took a step back and thought about the summer days visiting them and all the goodies I could find in their gardens and on their table. I can still remember my grandma waking up at 5 in the morning to water her tomatoes and peppers, and boy, the taste of those vegetables.., there’s nothing nowadays that can reproduce that. I can clearly picture my grandpa gathering small cornichons from the garden, cleaning them with his bare hands and handing them over to have one of the most delicious and simple snacks that still exist for me: crunchy cornichons with coarse salt.

Now on to our savoury pie, I just want to make a side note here: these pies were my husband’s wish, as they were his grandma signature snack and it’s a specific savoury pie you can mostly find in the heart of Transylvania, so I just had to recreate the recipe, based on his memories of taste and texture. The feedback was positive, seems that I could successfully bring back sweet childhood memories for him. Well, I needed to hear no more.

Everything about this recipes seems to have it’s own place, it’s simple, so easy to make, and yet very tasty and not that bad to indulge on. Let’s face it, we need comfort food from time to time.

The dough it’s a simple bread one, water, yeast, salt and flour (I made some small adjustments, but you can also stick to the basic ingredients and the results will be as delicious). I used white flour to make the dough, but I added a small amount of barn into it, to balance a bit the situation 

As for the filling, all you need is a good bunch of fresh dill, even half could work, hard cheese and a bowl to mix the ingredients. The cheese must be hard, otherwise will melt too much in the pan, so mozzarella, brie or any other soft cheese won’t work for the recipe. Any hard Feta cheese, not Danish, or even Pecorino will perfectly work for this recipe.

Fill in the middle of the savoury pie with the cheese and dill mixture, leaving the edges empty and fold them towards the centre, very similar to bringing together a rustic tart or a galette.

The original recipe asks for more oil when cooking the pies, but just greasing a bit the cast iron pan will do the work, as I didn’t want fried dough with a cheese filling, but more a toasted texture.

These delicious savoury pies make a perfect combo with a generous glass of natural kefir, especially if you have a good source of fresh farm dairy products, don’t think twice and grab some goodies.

Love,

Cori

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Cheese and Dill Romanian Savoury Pie

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By Cori Costache – Serves: 9 pies

Prep Time: 15 min + dough raising – Cooking Time: 40 min

Transylvanian Savoury Pie and a step back in time when grandma was making the best food in the world.

Ingredients

• 500 gr all purpose white flour + extra for dusting
• 1-2 tbsp barn
• 4 gr dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 300 ml lukewarm water (the quantity may differ based on the type of flour you use)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil + extra for greasing
• 1 small bunch of dill or 1/2 half of a bigger one
• 300-400 gr crumbled hard cheese

Instructions

1

Prepare the dough. In a bigger bowl mix the yeast with a small quantity of lukewarm water, and let it sit for 10 minutes. After the yeast starts to form small bubbles on top, add the flour, salt, sugar and the rest of the water. Start kneading (I did it manually in the same bowl, or transfer it on a floured surface) and add a bit more water if the dough is too dry. Add now the oil. Work the dough for about 10 minutes, until it becomes smooth and it's no longer sticky. Set aside in a covered bowl and let the dough rise for about 1 hour, or until it doubles its size.

2

In a different bowl, grate the cheese and chop the dill, mix them and set aside in the fridge.

3

When the dough has raised, cut it in small round chunks, 9 of them in total, and let them rest for another 10 minutes, while you are getting ready with the working surface and bringing back cheese filling from the fridge.

4

Roll out each dough in small disks of about 1 cm thick. Fill in the middle of the savoury pie with the cheese and dill mixture, leaving the edges empty and fold them towards the centre, very similar to bringing together a rustic tart.

5

Using again your rolling pin, roll it over the pie until it gets 2-3 mm thick. Repeat this with each pie.

6

Preheat a cast iron pan and grease it with vegetable oil.

7

Cook each savoury pie at the time, for about 3 mins on each side, or until gets golden brown.

8

Serve warm or cold with a generous glass of kefir or yogurt.