Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells
Pasta shells filled with spinach and ricotta beneath a tomato sauce.
About 55 min · 540 kcal · 30 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Mushroom, chestnut and thyme filo pie
Mushrooms and sweet chestnuts under crisp layers of filo.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 21 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm scrunched filo crisps in 22 to 28 minutes at 190°C
- Confirm the quark filling does not split off the heat
- Photograph the finished pie
- Time
- About 1 hr
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 500 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 24 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, milk, tree nuts. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- filo pastry. Filo can contain soya; check the packet.
Cooking steps
Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F (170°C fan).
Slice the mushrooms thickly and brown them hard in half the oil, in two batches, leaving each batch undisturbed for 2 minutes before turning. Set them aside.
Lower the heat, add a little more of the oil and soften the diced onion for 8 minutes.
Return the mushrooms with the whole chestnuts and the thyme, warm through, then take the pan off the heat and stir in the quark.
Tip the filling into an ovenproof dish. Scrunch the sheets of filo pastry loosely and lay them over the top, brushing them with the remaining oil.
Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, until the top is golden and crisp.
The useful detail
Scrunch the filo rather than laying it flat. The ridges catch the heat and crisp, and a loosely gathered sheet stays where you put it instead of sliding off as the filling bubbles.
Make it work for you
One serving is Half the pie. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Greek yoghurt instead of quark
Looser, which makes a wetter filling. Drain it first.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about 2 g more fat.
Walnuts instead of chestnuts
Firmer and more bitter, and far higher in fat.
Per serving: about 10 kcal more, about 2 g more protein, about 18 g more fat.
Allergens: Adds tree nuts.
Puff pastry instead of filo
Richer and much heavier, with roughly twice the calories for the same weight.
Per serving: about 90 kcal more, about the same protein, about 11 g more fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A pie where the quark stands in for cream and the filo for shortcrust, which is what keeps a dish of this kind inside a sensible calorie band.
| Energy | 500 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 24 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 79 g |
| of which sugars | 17 g |
| Fibre | 8 g |
| Sodium | 560 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mushrooms | 500 g | FDC 169251Mushrooms, white, raw | 110 kcal | 15.4 g |
| olive oil | 14 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 121 kcal | 0.0 g |
| onion | 120 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 48 kcal | 1.3 g |
| cooked chestnuts | 150 g | FDC 170190Nuts, chestnuts, european, roastedCalculated with FoodData Central's roasted chestnut record, the closest match to the vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts sold in shops. | 368 kcal | 4.8 g |
| fresh thyme leaves | 1 g | FDC 173470Thyme, freshA teaspoon of thyme leaves weighs 0.8 g, under 1 kcal on FoodData Central 173470. That record has no sugars value, so the leaves are listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| quark | 200 g | FDC 172181Cheese, cottage, nonfat, uncreamed, dry, large or small curdFoodData Central has no quark record. Calculated as dry-curd cottage cheese, the closest fresh unripened curd cheese it holds; the two are close in energy and protein, and your pot's label is the exact figure. | 144 kcal | 20.7 g |
| filo pastry | 70 g | FDC 172791Phyllo dough | 209 kcal | 5.0 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 999 kcal | 47.2 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 1 kcal to the whole recipe. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. The filo softens in the fridge. Crisp it in the oven rather than a microwave.
- In the freezer
- Freezing keeps food safe indefinitely; the texture is best if it is eaten sooner rather than later.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Mushroom and lentil cottage pie
A savoury mushroom-lentil filling with a soft potato topping.
About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian