Pastizz-ish

Today, I decided to wing it.

I knew that my other recipe for this week's destination would be pastizzi, a very popular dish in Malta that comes in a few varieties, but I couldn't decide which kind to make. Really, I wanted to prepare them all, but my wife is traveling this week and I didn't want a lot of leftovers not knowing if they'd freeze well.

One kind, pastizzi tal-irkotta, fills these little pockets with seasoned ricotta cheese. Another, pastizzi tal-pizelli, uses spiced peas and onions. There's a third kind, apparently, with anchovies but I found only one mention of those and no recipe. (That's OK, I'm not a big fan of anchovies, anyway.)

So, here's where I improvised. I had some ricotta left over from last week's cooking that needed to be used, but only about 8 oz. and the recipe I pulled from called for 14 oz. Plus, we have some other Mediterranean ingredients open and being shuffled around the fridge, like olives and sundried tomatoes. I grabbed everything we had that sounded like it would taste good together and made my filling from that.

Moreover, I cheated on the dough and used a store-bought crust. You really should check out how the recipe says to make the pastry, however. I bet the steps to incorporate the shortening and margarine produce an incredibly flaky and rich crust. Honestly, though, you can see by the crumbs in the picture that the texture of my cheat was wonderful, but admittedly the dough could've use a little extra flavor.

Anyhoo, the final result was tasty indeed! So much so that I'm going to bring the extras to my girls' night out tonight and share them! I bet the filling would be great with a little roasted garlic, and maybe baked in little mini quiche shells or this way but in bite-sized portions for a tasty appetizer...

Here's how I made them:

8 oz. ricotta
1 small onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp sundried tomatoes, minced
1 Tbsp olives, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
Salt and freshly cracked black papper, to taste
1 egg, beaten or Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and let the flavors blend at room temperature while you roll out the dough. Form a large rectangle with the dough, roughly 12"x18" and cut it into 6 squares.

Place about 2 Tbsp of the ricotta mixture into the center of each square. Dab a little milk or water around the edge of each square and fold the dough into triangle-shaped pouches. Press the edges together and use a fork to crimp them shut. 

Brush each pastizzi evenly with the beaten egg or oil, poke a vent in each so steam can escape and bake for 35 minutes till golden brown.