Tarts With Tops on : Or How to Make the Perfect Pie

Pies are the business. You can dress them up or dress them down. Make them classic or modern, savoury or sweet, shroud them in butter crisp pastry or top them with creamy potato. Eat them hot, warm or cold, with a scoop of cream, a slug of vanilla custard, a dollop of creme fraiche. You can fold the fruit in, tuck the crust under, build up the layers. No food comforts and nurtures like a proper home-made pie. Tamasin's selection includes classic savoury pies like Chicken Pie, Egg and Bacon Pie, the Cornish Pasty, an Italian Easter Pie with eggs and artichokes, la Torta di Zucchini, a Galician Pork and Sausage Pie, Koulibiac, the traditional Russian Salmon Pie, and a delicate Feta, Rice and Yoghurt Pie. Sweet pies include a section on apple pies, a Sugar-topped Cherry Pie, Raspberry Ripple Ice-cream Pie, Shaker Lemon Pie, Peach Pie, Southern Pecan Pie, Key Lime Pie, Mississippi Mud Pie and Blueberry Pie. 'A slice of heaven' Nigel Slater