Baked blue-cheese cake with pickled beetroot | Ottolenghi Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 large beetroots (670g), skin on and scrubbed clean
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 10g sprigs of thyme
• ½ tsp black peppercorns
• 50g caster sugar
• 500ml red wine vinegar
• salt
• 40g unsalted butter, fridge-cold and cut into 2cm dice, plus 20g extra, melted, for greasing the moulds
• 50g pumpkin seeds, toasted
• 5 digestive biscuits (75g), roughly crumbled
• 40g coarsely grated Parmesan
• 20g unsalted butter
• 1 medium leek, trimmed, white and green parts finely sliced (125g)
• 360g cream cheese
• 170g creme fraiche
• 80g double cream
• 20g chives, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped basil
• 100g stilton (or a mixture of 75g valdeon and 25g gorgonzola), roughly crumbled
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 40g runny honey (mixed, optionally, with a few drops of truffle oil)
• 30g hazelnuts, toasted and lightly crushed
• 15g baby basil or regular basil leaves