Leek, feta & zaatar pide-tart-thingy

More leek love, but is it pide, tart, turnover, or something else entirely? You decide.

The space between pide and tart is a vast and delicious grey area.

It is home to savoury loveliness that might be as much on the way to calzone as it is to filled croissant. I find these hinterlands rich with culinary inspiration and ripe for messing about with.

Most cuisines have a happy tradition where a small piece of dough or pastry partly encloses a savoury filling: turnover, strudel, tart, pide, pizzette, filled croissant. The Turkish pide is generally a flatbread dough made into the shape of a boat and filled with something deeply savoury and with, sometimes, an egg yolk on top for good measure. I first encountered the egg part of this combo at a Turkish restaurant in London, now sadly closed, called Oklava. It’s an inspired addition.

This recipe, made with puff pastry like a tart and a nod to its pide heritage with feta, zaatar and an egg yolk, continues my allium theme (see last week’s onion feast) and features leeks, slowly sweated until sweet and yielding.

If stuffing things with leeks floats your boat like it does mine…

…you might also enjoy some other recipes of mine:

Flatbreads stuffed with leeks, chestnuts and mushrooms

Leek and blue cheese loaf (from my cookbook)

Cheesy leek pizzette (also from my cookbook)

Leek and feta pide-inspired tart

Sweet leeks, fragrant zaatar, a salty kick of feta, all drowned in a rich, runny yolk. The egg yolk element may seem like a faff but it’s essential and actually very simple. The secret to separating yolk from white without breaking the yolk is to use your hands. Never use the shell, it’s too sharp. Break the egg into a small bowl then use your fingers to scoop out the yolk enclosing it round your fingers like a stuffed toy grabber in an arcade and letting the white run between your fingers.

Makes 4

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil