Goat’s cheese, squash and mushroom pithivier
By:
Emily Gussin
Food producer and sustainability lead, delicious.
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Published: 3 Nov 22
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Updated: 18 Mar 24
This mushroom pithivier cleverly combines a roundel of squash with roast mushroom and hazelnut duxelles, plus an oozing goat’s cheese centre. The perfect festive main for a vegetarian guest, or scale the recipe up to feed a group.
Browse more vegetarian Christmas recipes.
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Serves 1
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Hands-on time 40 min. Oven time 50 min
Ingredients
- 3cm thick slice butternut squash, seeds removed (cut from the wide base of the squash so it’s a ring doughnut shape)
- 5 chestnut mushrooms, halved
- Drizzle vegetable oil
- 10g blanched hazelnuts
- 1 black garlic clove, mashed
- ½ rosemary sprig, leaves picked and chopped
- 1 medium free-range egg, beaten
- 320g ready-rolled puff pastry sheet
- ½ x 100g goat’s cheese wheel (cut the wheel horizontally through its equator to create a thinner disc of cheese)
Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C fan/ gas 6. Put the thick ring of butternut squash on a baking tray along with the chestnut mushrooms. Drizzle the vegetable oil over both, season with salt and roast for 12 minutes. Add the hazelnuts to one edge of the tray and roast for another 8 minutes. Put the squash on a plate to cool, then tip the nuts and mushrooms into a food processor. Add the black garlic, rosemary and two-thirds of the egg. Whizz to a coarse paste, season, then set aside to cool.
- Once everything is cool, unroll the pastry sheet and cut out 2 circles, one about 3cm larger than the ring of squash and one about 5cm larger than the ring of squash (use a plate or bowl as a guide). Put the smaller circle of pastry on a piece of baking paper and sit the ring of squash in the centre. Press the goat’s cheese into the hole in the centre (you may need to trim it a little). Cover the squash and cheese in the mushroom mixture, using your hands to shape it into a dome.
- Brush a little of the remaining egg around the edge of pastry, then lay the second circle of pastry on top. Smooth it down over the dome of filling, then press the pastry edges together. Use a small sharp knife to neaten the edge, then make a small hole at the top of the dome. Lightly score the pastry dome with curved lines (this will help the pastry puff up evenly). Brush the top with more egg. Cover and chill (or freeze – see Make Ahead) until ready to cook.
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan/ gas 7. Bake the pithivier on a baking tray for 30 minutes (or 40 minutes if cooking from frozen) until the pastry is a deep golden colour. Serve.
Recipe from November 2022 Issue
Nutrition
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 1,044kcals
- Fat
- 74.4g (30g saturated)
- Protein
- 26.6g
- Carbohydrates
- 65g (3.2g sugars)
- Fibre
- 6.4g
- Salt
- 2.6g
delicious. tips
Easy swaps: Swap the hazelnuts for dried breadcrumbs (no need to toast them) to make this dish nut free.
Scale it up: Double, triple or quadruple the quantities to make more pithiviers, depending on how many you need. If there’s a large number of side dishes being served at your table, a half pithivier per person should be enough.
Don’t waste it: You’ll have lots of leftover pastry – save it to make cheese twists or all sorts of other great festive treats (see our website for more inspiration).
Once you’ve assembled the pithivier (to the end of step 3) it will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to 2 days, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months. Continue from step 4 cooking straight from the fridge or, if freezing, add about 10 minutes to the cooking time.