A Greek Island Pumpkin Pie
Lingering between sweet and savory, this treat from Lesbos is the perfect all-day snack.
Struggling to compose an account of our Barcelona trip for Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean and the days after the conference, I fell upon Irina Georgescu’s Plăcintă cu dovleac. I immediately decided to postpone my account on the trip, and share this Romanian pie, very similar to the squash/pumpkin pies of Greece.
And I am also sharing the unusual, deeply flavored pie from Lesbos that combines sugar, walnuts, and also spicy cheese...
“…Plăcintă is a pie that defines our baking in Romania,” writes Irina Georgescu, and I am deeply moved to learn that Romanians use a word deriving from plakous, the ancient Greek term for flat bread/cake. Note that placenta, the organ that nourishes the unborn baby, has the same ancient origin.
In the Romanian recipe, as in most pies baked all over Greece, the pumpkin or squash is cooked over the stove with sugar before being wrapped in pastry and baked. I like Georgescu’s suggestion to use commercial puff pastry instead of frozen phyllo for the flat pie —although home-rolled, olive oil phyllo would be ideal.
The squash for the Lesbos pie is raw, mixed with sugar and left to wilt and drain in a sieve. This adds texture to the filling, along with the walnuts and the cheese —traditionally an olive-cured, a bit sharp, local ladotyri. The syrupy liquid collected under the sieve is brushed over the pie at the last minutes of baking, adding extra flavor to the crust.
The process excludes the convenient use of canned pumpkin, which I know is the preferred ingredient for pies in the US. But once, making the pie in a friend’s small kitchen in NY, I did use canned pumpkin and aged cheddar, and the result was not exactly what I was used to, but the final pie wasn’t half bad…
Vegan and delicious
Because they are traditionally baked during Lent, Kolokotes, the squash, raisins, and bulgar hand pies from Cyprus are yet one more vegan treat that lingers between savory and sweet.
Scented with cinnamon, black pepper, and fennel seeds, these pies are one more all- hours snack, a favorite addition to the children’s lunch boxes in Cyprus.
I know I am late in indulging in The Gentelman in Moscow. I so much enjoy listening to Nicholas Guy Smith narrating the wonderful text, and I try hard to prolong the pleasure limiting my listening time. My friend Michael Costa, Zaytinya’s chef, who also adored the book, recreated the pork with apricots, the dish described in the book and even found the Georgian wine that the count suggested for accompanying it.
Ari Weinzweig in his thought-provoking and selective weekly newsletter presents the “Outstanding organic olive oil from Navarino Icons.” He relates the story of captain Constantakopoulos, the creator of the firm and the luxury hotels.
“…Navarino, […] is the leading sustainable resort on the Mediterranean. That commitment to the environment is at the center of their work. They reduced carbon emissions by 80% between 2019 and 2022 and they devote almost 10% of their annual spending to making ecological improvements in all facets of the work,” Ari writes.
And he adds, “the Navarino Icons segment of their work is very aligned with our longtime focus here at Zingerman’s on full-flavored and traditional foods. Offering, as they say, ‘Authentic food products inspired by the culinary history of the Peloponnese region’ they are true to Captain Constantakopoulos’ hope to honor the kind of simple and delicious country dishes he grew up on.”
I had the fortune to spend a few days at Costa Navarino, preparing the dishes that were photographed for the project organized by the Culinary Institute of America, EAT, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—Department of Nutrition, and I will talk more about the experience later.
Both of the pies sound/look delicious...and I have thick phyllo in the freezer from my last visit to Astoria! I'm also intrigued by Michael's pork and apricot stew...