Chard, ricotta and roasted garlic galette recipe

I love how forgiving a galette is – the edges can be as craggy as you like as long as the filling is successfully encased. 

I filled this with a mix of ricotta, parmesan, lemon and roasted garlic, then topped it with wilted chard. In the heat of the oven the leaves go crispy and salty, their stalks stay soft and tender, and the parmesan ricotta mix underneath ends up with a perfect wobble. I’ve finished it with a few whole parsley leaves but dill would be lovely too.

Timings

Prep time: 30 minutes 

Cook time: 1 hr 45 mins

Serves

4-6, depending on what you’re serving it with

Ingredients 

For the filling 

• A whole garlic bulb
• A big bunch of chard 
• Olive oil, for frying
• A pinch of salt
• 250g ricotta 
• 60g parmesan, grated + extra for finishing 
• A lemon, zested 
• A few parsley leaves

For the pastry 

• 200g plain flour + extra for dusting 
• 100g dark rye flour 
• A pinch of salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 175g unsalted butter, chilled 
• 2 large eggs, beaten 
• A little ice cold water

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. 

2. Wrap the garlic bulb in foil and place in the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes. Then remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 

3. Meanwhile, make the pastry. Put both flours and the salt in a large bowl and mix well. Cut the butter into cubes and add to the flour. Use your hands to rub the butter through the flour. Keep going until you have a nice even, fine crumb. Add half the egg mixture to the crumbs and mix so the dough starts to come together. Add the smallest trickle of cold water too. Bring the dough together and shape it into a thick disc. It should be smooth and not too wet. Dust it with flour, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour. 

4. Now get your filling going. Separate the stalks from the chard and finely chop them. Roughly chop the leaves. Set a frying pan over a low-medium heat with a splash of oil. Fry the stalks for about three minutes with a big pinch of salt. Then add the leaves and cook for another two minutes, or until they are starting to wilt but haven’t gone completely floppy. Transfer the chard to a bowl and crack some black pepper over it. Leave to cool. 

5. In another bowl, mix the ricotta with the parmesan, lemon zest, a pinch of salt and some black pepper. 

6. Unwrap the garlic, cut the tip off and squeeze the soft flesh into the ricotta mix. Mash that through. 

7. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Take the pastry out of the fridge. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll the pastry out to a rough circle, about half a centimetre thick. Don’t worry about the craggy edges – it’s meant to be rustic and uneven. 

8. Spoon the ricotta mixture onto the centre of the pastry, leaving a gap of about five centimetres around the edges. Pile the chard on top. Then take the edges of the pastry and start to fold and tuck them over the edges of the filling. Again, don’t worry about this being especially neat – you just want to make sure there are no gaps where filling could escape. 

9. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Then take it out, brush it with the remaining beaten egg and bake for another 10 minutes, or until golden. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before you serve. 

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