This recipe is adapted from two sources: the ratatouille from Saveur Magazine's recipe and the crust from Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cook Book by Dan Whelan. Serve the ratatouille by itself at any temperature you like. When filling hand pies, make sure the filling is cold so it doesn't prematurely melt the butter in the dough.
I have given metric measurements for the dough (flour and water). Just click over to metric on your scale. You'll be fine. I promise.
You will end up with more ratatouille than you need to fill 8 hand pies, so serve the extra however you'd like.
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste (season as you go. Taste as you go. Don't skimp on the salt)
1 28ozcan whole tomatoes, drained well
1medium eggplant, diced
1medium zucchini, diced
1medium summer squash, diced
2medium bell peppers, not green (red, yellow and/or orange)
1Tablespooneach chopped fresh basil and flat-leaf parsley
For the Dough
210gramsall purpose flour(about 1 3/4 cup)
1stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼teaspoonkosher salt
1large egg
80mlcold water
For Assembly
1egg
1teaspoonwater
Instructions
For the Ratatouille
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, combine the olive oil, onion, garlic, Herbes de Provence, bay leaf and a healthy dose of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened, about ten minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the basil and parsley, seasoning with more salt and pepper as you go.
Turn the burner on high and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Transfer the Dutch oven to the preheated oven and cook until the vegetables have cooked way down and released so much juice it almost looks like soup, stirring every 30 minutes or so.
Strain the juices into another large pan and boil to reduce by 75%. You want it to be very thick and syrupy and intensely flavored.
Allow the vegetables to sit in the strainer over the original pan, and every once in awhile, pour any other liquid that drains out into the pan of reducing liquid.
Stir the reduced juices back into the vegetables. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Stir in the basil and parsley.
If filling hand pies/pot pies, etc, cool and chill. Otherwise, serve at whatever temperature you'd like.
For the Dough
Put the flour, salt and butter in the bowl of your food processor.
Pulse about 10 times, until the butter is all in small pieces--there should be no big lumps. The larges pieces should be no larger than say a cooked lentil.
Beat the water and egg together and pour it evenly over the flour mixture.
Run the food processor until the dough comes together in a ball and circles around a couple of times. This might take 10 seconds. Maybe less.
The dough will be somewhat sticky, but just leave it alone.
Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour or up to 3-4 hours.
To Make the Hand Pies or Pot Pies
Flour your work surface and knead the refrigerated dough a few times, until it is smooth. 3-4 turns is all you need.
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. I weigh my dough and divide by the number of portions I need. For this dough, I find that I can scale out to about 56 grams to get 8 pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and then roll out into circles about 6"-7" in diameter, about the size of "taco sized" tortillas.
Place about 1/4 cup of filling in the center of the dough.
Wet 1/2 of the edge of the dough and fold the dry edge up and over the filling, pressing the two edges together to make half-circles. Seal by pressing all around the edge with the tines of a fork to seal.
For pot pies, scoop the filling into your oven-safe container and top with a round of dough. You can brush a bit of water on the rim of the container to help the dough stick, but it's okay if it doesn't. You can either trim the dough so only about 1/2" hangs over all around or you can crimp it. You should be able to get the idea from the photos.
Beat the egg and water together to make an egg wash.
Brush the dough lightly with the egg wash and bake until deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. I rotate the pan halfway through the baking time.
Let rest for about 10 minutes if serving hot. Otherwise, cool to warm or room temperature.