Dill pesto and smoked salmon and feta filo tart

This week seems a bit slow somehow,  post-Easter blues maybe?



Also I called Dad to wish him Happy Birthday. A month early. So now I'm obviously thinking I have early onset Alzheimer's.

Also I can't find a bag of pitta bread anywhere. I know I had one in the bread basket and it's gone. Either the mouse who sometimes visits our breadbasket has taken the whole unopened bag this time or, well, early onset Alzheimer's.

Anyway. What was I saying?

No point wallowing in negativity when you can also cook. So I whizzed together a quick dill pesto. If dill doesn't make you happy then I don't know what will.

I did a scrummy little filo tart. Which brings me onto a lunch on Sunday with a friend in the Real Greek in Shepherds Bush Westfields. They put the calories of each of the dishes on the menu. WHY? It's cruel. It's so unhelpful to anyone who wants to enjoy their lunch, but maybe helpful if someone doesn't, but wants to obsess about calories and eat carrots. Because a lot of the nice stuff like filo filled with feta was loads of calories and all the stupid stuff like crudites was reasonable calories. Like crudites 47 vs taramosalata abt 1000 kcal. How is that even possible, It's just fish roe for Poseidon's sake.

My fun when growing up was to draw family trees of Greek Gods, instead of hanging out in town with the cool kids because they had no understanding of Greek mythology.

Who would go to a restaurant and order crudites. Really. If you do, find help,

Anything with filo was around a 1000 kcal. And this whole fat math finally got me to choose some stupid green bean fava at less than 200 kcal instead of the probably awesome taramasalata.

And I think my friend liked the sound of the Greek Sundae for dessert, but after 6 shared mezze and several glasses of white wine the 1200 kcal sounded a bit much.

This little filo tart is probably not Weight Watchers approved either, but filled with healthy fresh stuff, tastes pretty awesome and not crazy on the calorie front. It would make a stylish starter or evening snack with a crisp glass of bubbly or white wine. Husband and I just had it as an after gym snack.

Dill pesto

1 - 1 1/5 cup (one big bunch) of fresh dill
1/4 - 1/3 cup of oil (I had half olive half vegetable)
1/3 cup grated parmesan
2 tbsp of pine nuts, pistachios or almonds
1 garlic clove
zest and juice of half a lemon
salt
pepper

Put everything in a blender and blitz until smooth. You can use less or more oil depending on what you are going to use it for and how thick or thin you like it (or you).

Smoked salmon, feta and dill pesto filo tart

1 pack of filo pastry
Oil
2 - 3 tbsp dill pesto
200g warm smoked salmon
1 courgette
1/2 red onion
2 spring onions
80 g feta
fresh dill

For fish in this I used a lovely flame smoked (hot not cold smoked) salmon, but you could use any salmon, also cold smoked, or even poached or baked.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Lightly oil a wide baking tray or pie dish. Layer 5 sheets of feta on the tray. Proper filo usage calls for brushing each layer with melted butter, but if you want a reasonably healthy weeknight meal just spread the shop-bought sheets on the tray and it'll be just fine.

Add the dill pesto on top of the filo and spread evenly.

Slice the red onion and courgette very thinly and chop the spring onion finely. Break the salmon into pieces with your fingers and drop on the filo, sprinkle on the onions and courgette slices. Crumble the feta on top and place in the oven.

Bake until filo is brown and crispy at the sides, about 15-20 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped dill and serve with mixed salad.