Recipe: Sweet Cheese Pie with Oven-Poached Quince

(From Leanne Kitchen’s Turkey: A Food Lover’s Journey)

Serves 8

Oven-Poached Quince

3 quinces, peeled, cored and halved

11⁄2 cups superfine sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

2 1⁄2 cups boiling water

Sweet Cheese Pie

1 cup superfine sugar

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1⁄2 lb firm fresh ricotta cheese

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped

2 eggs

21⁄2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

1⁄2 cup whipping cream

11⁄2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted

1⁄2 cup butter, melted

8 sheets filo pastry

Oven-Poached Quince

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Arrange the quince halves in a single layer in a baking dish and scatter with the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the boiling water, then cover the dish tightly with foil and cook for 45 minutes. Turn the quince over and cook for 45–50 minutes more, or until the quince halves are tender. Remove from the heat and cool in the syrup. Cut the quince into thin slices to serve, reserving the syrup.

Sweet Cheese Pie

Combine the superfine sugar and 1⁄2 cup water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. B ring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and cool. Put the ricotta, vanilla seeds, eggs and confectioners’ sugar in a food processor and process until smooth and combined. Add the cream and use the pulse button to process until just combined. Add the flour and pulse again until smooth. Set aside.

Brush the base and side of a 9 1⁄2-inch round baking dish generously with butter. Place a sheet of filo pastry in the base of the dish and brush well with butter (keep the remaining pastry under a damp dish towel to prevent it drying out as you work). Place another layer of pastry over the top at an angle so that half of the sheet overhangs the sides. Brush with butter and continue layering the pastry at varying angles so that the overhang evenly lines the dish. Spoon the ricotta mixture into the pastry-lined dish. F old the overhanging pastry back over the filling to cover — you can tear off some pieces of leftover pastry, scrunch them up and use them to fill any remaining gaps in the center. Bake the pie in the oven for 40 minutes, or until golden and slightly puffed. Remove from the oven and spoon the reserved quince syrup over the top, then leave to cool to room temperature.

Cut the pastry into slices and serve with the quince on the side. This pie is best served on the day it is made.