It was Jacques Houdek who once said, ‘Dare to dream, make a meal’ – ok yes, that wasn’t quite the lyric, but with this year’s slogan ‘Dare to Dream’ why not make a few adaptations! With this year’s contest quickly approaching, it’s time to start planning your Eurovision parties. With the help of Eurovision Union, you can plan out the ultimate Eurovision party for you and your friends!
Over the last month, we’ve gathered some of the tastiest and most intriguing dishes from across the participating nations and we have put our aprons on to test out these recipes! We selected a diverse range of food, as well as both savoury and sweet dishes, so if you are hosting a Eurovision party this year, you can take inspiration from our cooking adventures across Europe and recreate these dishes for you and your friends!
Pastizzi (Malta)
We’re heading off to Malta today for one of my favourite foods – Pastizzi! If you aren’t familiar with this delicious snack, Pastizzi are a traditional savoury pastry from Malta, filled usually with either ricotta or with mushy peas. The golden, buttery, flaky pastry is like none other but because of that, it’s not easy to recreate to the level of a Maltese-made Pastizzi.
If you are not able to source some Pastizzi, you can always try making some! They may not have the crispy, buttery mouth feel, but the good thing about Pastizzi is that a) you can use store bought pastry and b) you have the opportunity to fill the pastry with whatever suits your tastes. Sure, it’s traditional to have either ricotta or mushy peas, but rules are made to be broken!
To try recreate the layers in the pastry, we used store bought sheets of puff pastry and layered them with lard (pastry, lard, pastry, lard, etc) finishing with the pastry layer on top. We then rolled out the sheets to a thin layer and rolled the pastry into a sausage like shape. We then refrigerated the pastry for about half an hour, then cutting that pastry into little cylinder shapes to then roll out for the individual pastizzi. If even this is too much effort (totally understandable) you can simply just use the store bought puff pastry sheets!
We added a few extra ingredients to our cheese filling, but here is a recipe for an easy cheese pastizzi!
Here is the recipe we used (credit: Taste Australia)
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Makes: 20
Ingredients:
- 300g fresh ricotta cheese
- 2/3 cup coarsely grated mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 sheets frozen puff pastry, partially thawed
Instructions:
- Place ricotta in a bowl. Using a fork, mash until almost smooth. Add mozzarella and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Add half the egg. Stir to combine.
- Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan-forced. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
- Using a 10cm round cutter, cut 5 rounds from each pastry sheet. Brush edge of rounds with egg. Spoon 1 level tablespoon mixture onto centre of each round. Spread to a 5cm log. Fold up 2 sides of pastry to enclose log. Pinch to seal. Twist ends to form points. Place on prepared trays. Brush with remaining egg.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and puffed. Stand for 4 minutes before serving.
Here’s what we started with:
And here is our finished product!
Beer List
Our resident beer expert has done research (and a whole lot of tasting) to come up with some of the must-try beers of the nation. For each nation there are three suggestions:
- The National Treasure – this is a beer that is recognisable and accessible to buy
- The Party Starter – this is a nicer alternative, but still fairly accessible to buy
- The Show Stopper – this is for the beer enthusiasts or those with a sense of adventure, but may not be as easy to purchase outside of that nation
Malta
The National Treasure – Cisk Lager (Pale Lager – 4.2%)
The Party Starter – Lord Chambray Blue Lagoon (Witbier – 5.0%)
The Show Stopper – Lord Chambray Flinders Rose (Gose – 4.2%)
Listen to our Dare to Dream, Make a Meal playlist: