Serves: 6
This is a lovely tart packed full of flavour. When wild garlic is out of season you could swap it for rocket -although the flavour will be peppery rather than garlicky. The courgettes are cut into tiny batons which obviously I don’t expect anyone to do with a knife. A mandolin, fitted with the julienne blade, makes very short work of this task. You can also get vegetable peelers with julienne blades but you’ll end up with long spaghetti –or courgetti-strips. The rye in the pastry gives the tart a delicious nutty flavour. It can make the pastry more difficult to roll out but if you roll between two sheets of parchment you’ll find the pastry holds together better.
Ingredients
- For the pastry
- 190g plain flour
- 50g rye flour
- Pinch salt
- 120g cold salted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 egg yolk
- For the filling
- 2 courgettes, about 430g, topped and tailed and julienned
- 1 tablespoon Maldon salt
- 70g wild garlic leaves, washed and dried and finely chopped
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 250ml double cream
- 150ml milk
- 100g Roquefort cheese, crumbled
Method
- Mix the flours together with the pinch of salt. Rub in the cold butter until no visible lumps remain. You can do this in a food processor but honestly it takes no time at all by hand. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons cold water-just enough for the mixture to come together to form a smooth dough. Knead the dough once or twice and wrap in cling film. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper or baking parchment and line a 20 x 32cm tart tin with the pastry. Prick the base with a fork and chill for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 170˚c, fan oven 150˚c, mark 3. Bake the pastry blind for 25 minutes. Lift out the baking beans (or whatever you use to weigh the pastry down) and bake for a further 10 minutes until the base is cooked through. Brush the pastry with the egg yolk and return to the oven for 3-4 minutes. This will help seal up any cracks in the pastry and stop it going soggy once the filling is in.
- While the pastry is resting and baking you can salt the courgettes. Put the courgettes in a colander and sprinkle with the Maldon salt. Leave for one hour –the courgettes should release quite a lot of liquid. Squeeze out any excess moisture with heavy duty kitchen roll.
- In a jug beat the eggs with the cream and milk and season with a little salt and lots of ground black pepper.
- Scatter the courgettes over the pastry and follow with the chopped wild garlic. Pour in half the custard mix. Take the tart over to the oven and place on the oven rack. Fill the tart with the remaining custard and scatter over the cheese. Bake for about 25 minutes then turn the heat up to 220˚c, 200˚c, mark 7. Bake for a further 5-6 minutes until golden. Leave for 5-10 minutes at room temperature before serving.
