Recipe: Pine nut, cottage cheese and pesto parcels

There’s nothing like the satisfying crunch of perfectly cooked filo pastry. Photo / Fresh Media

Serve these vegetarian filo parcels with a salad for a lunch or light dinner. You can also cut them into smaller pieces to serve as savoury finger food for an afternoon tea.

Feel free to brush the filo sheets with melted butter if you prefer, but using a cooking oil spray keeps the fat content down.

Pine nut, cottage cheese and pesto parcels

Serves 2

Ingredients

8 sheets of filo pastry

200g cottage cheese

125g sun-dried tomatoes, cut into small strips

4 Tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted

2 Tbsp pesto

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

Cooking oil spray

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Combine the cottage cheese, pesto, pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl.
3. Line two oven trays with baking paper.
4. Lay two sheets of filo pastry on one of the oven trays. Spray with oil and lay two more sheets of filo over the top.
5. Spoon half of the filling along the long edge of one of the prepared sheets of filo. Leave a border on the edge about 3cm wide.
6. Fold the border in on the long side, then roll up tightly and place the seam down on the lined tray.
7. Repeat the process with the remaining filo and filling, using the second oven tray to lay it out on.
8. Spray lightly with cooking oil, scatter some sesame seeds over the top, and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

– fresh.co.nz