Cheese and rosemary honey kadaif (shredded pastry pie)

  • Portion size: Serves 8-10
  • Hands-on time 30 min, oven time 25-30 min
  • Difficulty: easy
Recipe by: Rebecca Woolard

A homage to Levantine dishes, our cheese and rosemary honey kadaif is crisp with a smooth centre.

Kadaif is a type of baklava, with a filling of nuts, drenched in honey. Kanafeh is a special type of cheese pastry, soaked in sugar syrup and served as dessert. This crossover of the two makes a wonderful starter or lunch dish and was inspired by the restaurant Lokanta Maya in Istanbul.

Love this sweet and savoury combo? Our whole-baked feta is drizzled with honey before being baked until gooey perfection.

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Ingredients

  • 60g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
  • 250g kataifi/kadaif pastry
  • 200g feta, crumbled
  • 100g halloumi, grated
  • 125g ball mozzarella (not buffalo), shredded
  • 100g clear honey
  • 4 fresh rosemary sprigs, plus 2 to serve
  • Squeeze lemon juice
  • Aleppo chilli flakes to garnish (available from souschef.co.uk; optional)

You’ll also need…

  • 20cm cake tin with a loose bottom (not a springform)
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Method

  1. Grease the cake tin well with butter, then set aside and heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Put the kataifi in a food processor and whizz until you have strands that are 1-2cm long. Melt the 60g butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat then, when foaming, tip in the pastry. Stir to coat it in the butter, then cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until the pastry has become a little translucent and has changed colour slightly.
  2. Tip about two thirds of the pastry into the cake tin and spread it over the base, pressing it up the sides, creating a hollow in the centre. Mix all the cheeses together and season well with black pepper. Press the mix into the hollow, then put the remaining pastry over the top and pat it down to secure it. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is deep golden and crisp.
  3. Meanwhile, put the honey, rosemary sprigs and lemon juice into a small saucepan and heat gently until the honey is very runny – but don’t let it boil. Leave it to cool while the pie finishes cooking. Once the pie is ready, remove from the oven and carefully invert onto a serving plate (hold the plate on top of the pie, smoothly flip the pie and plate together in one move, then remove the cake tin base). Heat the honey again until runny, then drizzle it over the pie to soak in. Top with rosemary sprigs, scatter with aleppo chilli, then slice and serve while still warm. A sharp, heavy knife is best for cutting.
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Nutrition

  • 253kcals Calories
  • 14.7g (9.3g saturated) Fat
  • 9.3g Protein
  • 21g (7.9g sugars) Carbs
  • 0g Fibre
  • 1g Salt

Make Ahead

Assemble the pie, then chill in the fridge for up to 8 hours. It’s best eaten on the day it’s baked.

Cook smarter

This is a hybrid of two Levantine dishes – kadaif and kanafeh. Kadaif is a type of baklava, with a filling of nuts, drenched in honey. Kanafeh is a special type of cheese pastry, soaked in sugar syrup and served as dessert. This version is made to be a starter or lunch dish and was inspired by the restaurant Lokanta Maya in Istanbul.

Kataifi (kadaif) pastry is shredded bric or filo pastry and is available from Turkish shops or from melburyandappleton.co.uk. It freezes well, so it’s worth stocking up.

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