Gordon Ramsay’s cheese and onion pie is layers of blanched potato and sweated onion packed with Montgomery Cheddar, wrapped in shortcrust pastry and baked until golden and crisp. It’s a free-form pie, no tin needed, baked straight on a baking sheet. Ready in about an hour, serves four.
This is his recipe from Great British Pub Food, and he calls it “a great vegetarian lunch, especially if you serve it warm from the oven, accompanied by buttery greens or a side salad.” It’s one of the simplest pies in the book but the cheese does all the heavy lifting.
The detail that makes it work is blanching the potato slices instead of using them raw. Three to four minutes in boiling water, just until tender. If you skip this the potatoes stay hard in the middle because 45 minutes isn’t long enough to cook raw potato through pastry. Blanch them first and they melt into the cheese as the pie bakes.
Gordon Ramsay Cheese and Onion Pie
Course: Lunch, DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes50
minutes520
kcalGordon’s cheese and potato pie from Great British Pub Food. Blanched potato slices layered with sweated onions and Montgomery Cheddar in a free-form shortcrust pastry case, baked golden on a baking sheet. Vegetarian.
Ingredients
500g shortcrust pastry
Few knobs of butter
2 large onions, chopped
Few thyme sprigs, leaves stripped
Sea salt and black pepper
800g Desirée or Maris Piper potatoes
200g mature Cheddar (Montgomery or similar), grated
1 large egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp water
Directions
- Sweat the onions: Melt the butter in a heavy pan. Add the onions, thyme and seasoning. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes until soft.
- Blanch the potatoes: Peel and slice the potatoes 5mm thick. Blanch in boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes until just tender. Drain thoroughly and cool in a wide bowl. Mix in the onions, cheese and a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
- Shape the pie: Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan, Gas 6). Divide the pastry in two, one piece slightly larger. Roll the smaller piece into a 25cm round and place on a baking sheet. Roll the larger piece about 5cm bigger.
- Fill and seal: Layer the potato and cheese filling in the centre of the smaller round, leaving a 3-4cm border. Stack the slices against each other so the pie holds its shape. Brush the border with egg wash. Drape the larger round over the top, press the edges to seal, crimp. Brush with egg wash.
- Bake: Bake 45 to 55 minutes until the pastry is deep golden brown. Rest a few minutes before slicing.
Gordon says to stack the potato slices upright against each other rather than laying them flat. This gives the pie height and structure, so when you cut into it you see neat layers of potato and melted cheese rather than a flat mess.
FAQs
Why Montgomery Cheddar?
It’s a proper British farmhouse Cheddar with a strong, complex flavour that holds up through the bake. Any mature Cheddar works, but the sharper the better because it’s doing all the seasoning in a simple filling.
Avoid mild Cheddar, it melts but doesn’t taste of much. You want something with bite.
Why is it free-form instead of in a tin?
Gordon bakes his straight on a baking sheet with the pastry wrapped around the filling like a rustic parcel. No tin needed, no blind-baking, no soggy-bottom worries.
The pastry crisps up all the way round because it’s sitting directly on the hot baking sheet. It’s easier than a proper pie tin and looks better on the table.
Is this vegetarian?
Yes. It’s one of the only vegetarian pies in the book. The filling is potato, onion, cheese and thyme, nothing else. Gordon suggests serving it with buttery greens or a side salad.
If you want a meat version instead, his chicken pie from the same book uses the same shortcrust pastry method with a chicken, leek and bacon filling.
Can I add anything to the filling?
Leeks work well alongside the onion. So does a handful of spinach wilted and squeezed dry, or a few rashers of bacon if you don’t need it vegetarian.
Keep it simple though. The whole point is that the cheese and potato carry the pie without needing much else.
Does it reheat well?
It does. Warm at 170C for 10 to 15 minutes uncovered so the pastry stays crisp. It’s also good at room temperature, which makes it a proper picnic pie.
Don’t microwave it. The pastry goes soggy and you lose everything that makes it worth eating.
