This vegetarian main is ready to shine on your holiday table

By Melissa Clark, The New York Times

As savory and alluring as a pot of stew can be, it’s rarely charismatic enough to hold its own as the centerpiece of a blowout holiday feast. There’s no amount of chopped parsley on top that can adequately dress up that long-simmered brown underneath; a stew, by nature, is always more cozy and homey than fancy and showstopping.

But pour that same stew into a pastry crust and bake until its buttery surface turns golden and glistening, and you’ve got a spectacular main course that’s ready for a star turn.

You can do this to pretty much any thick stew and get excellent results. This time, I went meatless, riffing on a chickpea-filled vegetable tagine rich with sweet spices and minced preserved lemon.

Since the best stews can be quite involved — all those vegetables to chop and sear, plus a long, slow bubbling on the stove — I’ve kept the pastry simple and used a prepared phyllo rather than homema...