Albanian bean pie

Baking tool:

• greased non-stick springform pan,
• bottom inside 18 cm,
• raised edge 7 cm

Filling:

• white beans from a tin,
• net weight about 750 g
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 tsp dried savory
• or fresh herb to taste

Dough:

• 350 g white bread flour
• 150 ml cooking liquid from the beans
• 50 ml olive  oil
• about 50 ml lukewarm water
• 6 g salt
• oil for brushing  

Print dit recept

At a meeting in the Vredespaleis (Peace Palace) in The Hague I met Gazmend Barbullushi, ambassador of Albania. The cuisine of his country, during the regime of Hoxha for a long time isolated from the world, is regrettably almost unknown to the rest of Europe. This situation I presented to the ambassador. Not long after that he was so kind to send me 1000 Receta gatimi (Tiranë, 2008) written by Evgjeni Harizi with the announcement that I could always ask his help for the translation of a recipe from this authoritative cookbook.

When looking at the pictures and the names of the dishes you can see how joyful Albanians are cooking. You see Turkish as well as Italian or French influences, but when it comes to pastry they are choosy: Albanian. I chose Petanik me fasule from Korçe in South East Albania (Petanik means layered). People there are rightly proud of this sustainable vegetarian pie, a kind of pancake tart. I got the promised help, also from Mrs. Edlira Barbullushi, who told me that you can definitely not use filo pastry, because that will become mushy by the bean liquid.