Recipe: Warm Pastry Bites with Feta, Za’atar, Tomato and Olives

Persiana Every Day is the follow-up to Persiana, the successful debut by Sabrina Ghayour, the uncrowned queen of Persian cuisine. In Persiana Every Day, she shows that dishes such as these feta and za’atar pastry bites from the rich Persian kitchen are easy to make with readily available ingredients and, above all, packed with flavour.

Sabrina: “These delicious puff pastry bites are one of my favourite savoury snacks. I first made them in the 1990s, when sun-dried tomatoes were hugely fashionable. Everywhere you went to eat, they were on the menu and they were in everything you could buy in the shops. They are little flavour bombs that always make an immediate impact. This combination of flavours is almost Mediterranean and works really well with the crisp puff pastry. I like to let them cool slightly before eating them, as that’s when they taste best.”

How to make the warm pastry bites with feta, za’atar, tomato & olives

• Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Line the largest baking tray you have with baking paper.
• Cut the pastry into thirds lengthways and widthways, so that you have 9 rectangles.
• Drain the semi-dried tomatoes, pat dry with kitchen paper and roughly chop.
• Mix the tomatoes with the feta, Kalamata olives and za’atar in a mixing bowl and season well with pepper.
• Divide the tomato mixture over the centre of the pastry pieces and smooth the surface.
• Twist 2 corners of a piece of pastry like a sweet wrapper. Repeat with the other 2 corners, leaving the filling visible in the centre. Repeat with the remaining pastry.
• Place the pastry bites on the baking tray and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly and serve warm.

Title: Persiana Every Day
Author: Sabrina Ghayour
Price: €27,50
Publisher: Good Cook

Also read:

• Recipe: Za’atar bread from the Ottolenghi team
• Recipe: Braised leeks with eggs and za’atar
• Ottolenghi recipe: za’atar salmon with tahini