Filo Fiorentina: Like the Pizza but in a Filo Case

On Friday nights, I've started to go swimming after work. Such a nice way of finishing the week and leaving all the stress behind. Mind you this Friday was hardly stressful: a recce around London for my current job, ending up at the Park Plaza hotel in one of their penthouse suites. I'm not complaining!

Not with this view! Anyway, going back to the swimming, I used this time to come up with my roast recipe. Partly because I was hungry, I started thinking about pizza. And, my favourite pizza is the Fiorentina. I love the baked egg on the top.

I wanted to do an open Filo tart, using the Fiorentina Pizza ingredients. Instead of doing the tomato layer on the bottom, I thought that doing the spinach and goats cheese layer on the bottom would mean that it wouldn't go soggy.

Start by preparing the spinach filling: Saute a clove of garlic in olive oil. Then add your spinach to the pan, salt, pepper and nutmeg to season. Let this cook for 5 minutes with the lid on. It'll be very watery and so you need to (in a sieve) drain off all of the excess water. Make sure you really press the spinach against the sieve so that there is really no excess water coming out. I keep this spinach juice in a Tupperware as a stock in the freezer but if you don't want to keep it then discard it.

Once the spinach has cooled, add your goats cheese and mix it together. This will be the bottom layer of your Filo tart. You also need to toast a good handful of pine nuts to throw over the top at the end. For the tomato sauce layer, I made a rich sauce of my own but you could buy a nice Italian pasta sauce and use that instead. It mustn't be too wet that the only thing.  Leave all of your Filo fillings to one side for later. Now preheat your oven at 190 degrees centigrade.

Then prepare your Filo pastry cases: Melt some butter and brush the inside of 6 ramekin dishes and around the tops with it. On a board, put your first Filo sheet. Brush with melted butter and place on the next sheet. Brush again with melted butter and cut into squares (roughly 15cm x 15cm depending on your ramekin). Then, stuff (gently) each ramekin with a square of prepared Filo. Bake for 10 minutes and then take them out of the oven. Let them cool and take each case out of the ramekins.

You're then ready to put together your Filo case. Compile your tart starting with the bottom layer of your spinach mixture. Followed by the tomato sauce. Make sure you leave enough room for the egg to go on top- I'd say don't fill the case more than two thirds. Bake for ten minutes on 190 degrees. Then crack one egg on each Filo tart and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some toasted pine nuts. Top with peppery rocket and serve as you like. I served it with some roast potatoes, a light gravy and a crunchy green salad. It's the kind of dish that could be served as a wintry roast with veg and gravy,  but could also quite easily be a summery lunch dish with a light salad. Either way I think it looks impressive and you already know the flavours work a treat together.

Ingredients (Serves 6):

Jus Roll Filo Pastry, 6 sheets. I only used 4 sheets but you could, if you wanted layer up three sheets instead of 2.
Butter to melt and line Ramekin dishes and to brush over Filo pastry
200g fresh Spinach
70g crumbly goats cheese
Rich, thick tomato sauce, either homemade or bought. I threw in some sun dried tomatoes as well.
Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg to season
6 free range eggs
Handful of pine nuts, toasted
Rocket to go on top
You'll need 6 Ramekins as well.