I made this tart last night for our first dinner in the garden and it was so lovely that I thought I’d give you the recipe.
It’s like spring on the plate. I served it with a light and fresh cucumber salad with a yoghurt, mint and chive dressing.
You’ll need:
A pre-baked pastry case (I had some pastry in the freezer so used that but you could use a shop bought ready rolled case no problem)
A bunch of new spring carrots
A 250g tub of ricotta
120g brebis cheese (Feta or other brebis would be fine) grated
1 egg and one egg yolk
A bunch of fresh tarragon
Salt & pepper
Heat your oven to 200°C and blind bake your pastry case until golden. Prick the pastry all over, put in a piece of greasproof paper and weigh it down with dried pulses or baking beans. This stops the pastry from rising too much.
Scrub or peel the carrots (favour the smaller ones), cut in half lengthways and then lenghways again to give 4 long slices of carrot. Try to retain some of the green ends as they look pretty. Drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, season well and cook them under the pastry on a baking tray until going slightly brown at the edges but still firm (they will have further cooking).
In a bowl mix up the ricotta, brebis, egg and egg yolk. Season with plenty of black pepper and go gently on the salt as the cheese is salty. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped tarragon.
When the pastry case is golden, take it out of the oven.
Spread the ricotta, egg, brebis mixture evenly over the base. Carefully place the roasted carrots over the top and then pop back in the oven for another 20 minutes. The filling raises and puffs up slightly.
As you can see, I used a rectangular tin which was pretty but you could just as easily use a round one and fan the carrots around from the middle.
Serve a cucumber salad alongside. For 2 people you’ll need half a cucumber that you peel and slice. Make a dressing using half a natural yoghurt (Greek or other), a tablespoon of lemon juice, a tablespoon of olive oil, half a clove of garlic finely grated, salt and pepper. Whisk together. Chop some chives and mint and sprinkle them on the cucumber and then dress about 20 minutes before serving. If you don’t have chives than a little finely diced red onion or a spring onion finely chopped would be just as good.
I hope you enjoy it.
