Higgidy’s pumpkin, walnut and sage crostata
A crostata is an Italian baked tart, often with a wonderfully rustic free-form pastry case. With its sweet pumpkin filling and tangy Stilton topping, this dramatic veggie centrepiece is the essence of Christmas.
- 1 pack of pre-rolled pastry
- A little plain flour, for dusting
- 1 pumpkin (about 750g), peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm-thick wedges
- 4 shallots, quartered
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
- ½ bunch of sage, leaves picked
- Olive oil, for drizzling
- 50g walnuts
- 1tsp clear honey
- 2tsp wholegrain mustard
- 2tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 30g unsalted butter
- 12 sage leaves
- 40g blue cheese, such as Stilton, crumbled
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- First, start making the filling. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas Mark 6. Then, divide the pumpkin wedges between 2 large shallow roasting tins with the shallots, garlic and sage. Drizzle over enough olive oil to coat and season well with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes.
- Remove both tins from the oven and set one tin of roast pumpkin aside for later. Add the walnuts to the other tin of pumpkin and roast for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, keeping the oven on, and scrape the walnut and pumpkin mixture into a food processor.
- Now add the honey, mustard, vinegar and chilli flakes and blitz on a high speed, drizzling in 4 tablespoons of olive oil, to turn the consistency of the mixture from chunky to smooth, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Line a large baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a rough 25cm circle, about 3mm thick. Transfer the pastry circle to the lined baking sheet. Spoon the filling mixture into the centre of the pastry, leaving a border of about 4cm around the edge. Arrange the reserved pumpkin wedges on top of the filling before lifting the pastry border up around the edge of the vegetables and crimp. Bake for 30 minutes.
- While the crostata is baking, line a plate with kitchen paper. Melt the butter in a frying pan, and when it starts to foam, scatter the sage leaves evenly around the pan so that none overlap. Use a spatula to turn the leaves over and crisp them up – about 45 seconds. Transfer the sage leaves to the lined plate to crisp up further.
- Remove the crostata from the oven and sprinkle over the blue cheese and crispy sage leaves. Leave to cool and for the blue cheese to melt into the crostata for 15 minutes before slicing.