Festive Filo Rotolo

 “Rotolo” is an Italian dish, (traditionally made with sheets of pasta Rotolo means “Roll”). Our festive version give you a delicious centrepiece for Christmas dinner, but also left overs or elements of the dish which can become another meal or part of a feast. The Rotolo can be frozen and cooked from frozen or defrosted a little before cooking, brushed with melted butter or olive oil, and cooked until golden.

Serves four as a main course, six as a starter

Ingredients

1 pack of filo pastry

Melted butter or olive oil to brush the pastry

A few spoonfuls of shop bought or home made Cranberry relish or similar.

You will also need cling film and a pastry brush.

Roasted Squash filling

1 medium squash (approx 700g weight when prepped)

1 tsp pink peppercorns

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bulb garlic

Approx 6 stems of thyme

Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5

Chop the squash into cubes of approximately 1 cm, dress with the olive oil and the thyme. Halve the garlic through the middle and place, cut side down, on the baking tray with the squash. Grind the pink peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and stir into the squash. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the squash is starting to brown at the edges, stir it a few times during cooking. Taste and season with salt, remove any thyme stalks and squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin-if you like you can make this into a paste with any oil left in the pan and stir it back into the squash.

Roasted walnuts with artichokes

50g walnut halves

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp Maldon salt

100g Grilled artichokes

A small handful of flat leaf parsley

Juice of half a lemon

In a baking tray toss the walnut halves in the olive oil and add the smoked paprika and salt. Roast for approx 10 minutes until the walnuts are browning but not burnt. Allow to cool and then break up the walnuts in a pestle and mortar.

Chop the artichokes and the flat leaf parsley finely and then stir them into the walnuts. Squeeze on the lemon and stir well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed-it is probably salty enough with the artichokes and walnuts but may need some pepper or more lemon juice.

Spinach with mustard seeds and feta

250g bag of spinach

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

Grated nutmeg (to taste)

Salt and black pepper

1 tbsp sunflower oil

100g feta

Wash the spinach in a colander and put, still wet; in a large pan (one that has a lid is best). Heat gently, stirring often until the spinach starts to wilt, then put on the lid for a couple of minutes so the spinach is all wilted. Transfer the spinach to a sieve and squeeze out as much liquid as you can with the back of a spoon. Meanwhile heat the oil in the pan which you melted the spinach in and add the mustard seeds and nutmeg. When the seeds begin to pop add the squeezed spinach and stir well. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

• Place a large piece of Clingfilm on a work surface or chopping board.

• On top of the Clingfilm layer two whole sheets of filo pastry, brushing between the sheets and on top of the sheets with melted butter or olive oil.

• Spread the roasted squash cubes evenly over the surface of the filo. Gently press the squash with a fork so that it flattens all over the filo, evenly covering the sheet but leaving a 1 cm margin all around which is clear of filling.

• Place another sheet of filo on top of the squash layer and brush with butter.

• Spread the spinach evenly over the surface, again leaving a margin of 1cm around the edges. On top of the layer of spinach crumble the feta cheese evenly.

• Place another sheet of filo on top of the spinach layer and brush with butter.

• Spread the artichoke and walnuts on top of the filo, this time only covering the lower half of the filo (the bottom half nearest to you).

• On the bottom edge of the filo, closest to you, carefully spoon a line of cranberry relish (this will be the centre of the Rotolo)

• Working carefully, and using the cling film to help you roll the filo, start to roll up the Rotolo. You will need to roll evenly so that the filo rolls into a long sausage shape. Keep gently squeezing along the length of the filo to tighten the roll and get rid of any bubbles.

• When you come to the end of the filo you should have a tidy round sausage shape. Gently tuck in both ends to seal in the fillings. Carefully lift the Rotolo and place on a clean board or tray. Place another sheet of filo on the Clingfilm and brush with butter. Place the Rotolo on the filo so that the seam is face down and roll it up again.

• Discard the Clingfilm, brush the whole Rotolo with butter and wrap in Foil. The Rotolo can be cooked straight away, or kept in the fridge for up to three days, or frozen and cooked from frozen or defrosted (cook for an extra 15 minutes if cooking from frozen).

To Cook at 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5

Rotolo in its foil: 40 minutes, remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until golden

Or slice the Rotolo into 2 cm slices, spread out on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes

Tip and ideas:

You can use all of the different layers of the Rotolo to make different dishes-either make a smaller Rotolo and use the leftovers or double up the fillings.

Squash Bissara: Roast the squash as in the Rotolo and mash the cooked squash with a little ground cumin, lemon juice and olive oil. Delicious with breadsticks or as a dip.

Combine the roasted walnut and Artichoke mixture with the Spinach and feta mix to make a delicious salad or side dish. This also works well stirred through pasta.

You can make a gluten free version of the dish by filling a squash. Choose a small “munchkin” or onion squash. Slice off the top so that you have a lid and the carefully scoop out the seeds. Brush the inside of the squash with a little olive oil and roast the squash for approximately 30 minutes. Allow to cool and the layer up the fillings for the Rotolo, finishing with a topping of the walnuts. Wrap in foil and roast for approximately 30 minutes, removing the foil for the final 10 minutes.

For a vegan version omit the feta and use olive oil to brush the filo pastry. You could replace the feta with a vegan soft cheese or make your own “Labna” (see the recipe included)

Filo: If you can try and find a filo pastry from the chilled area of a supermarket rather than frozen. Makes such as Just-roll, which are just frozen, are hard to work with and usually split. Just Roll in the purple packet works better. Waitrose sells an excellent French make.