A tasty tart perfect for light lunch or a starter using seasonal ingredients to their best. Topped off with gem lettuce and pesto salad

  • 55
  • 4-6
  • Medium

Ingredients

  • For the tart
  • 300g plain flour
  • 150g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 475g asparagus (plus extra for serving)
  • 120g smoked bacon
  • 300g single cream
  • 1tsp Dijon mustard
  • 50g Parmesan cheese, grated.
  • For the salad
  • Gem lettuce
  • Wild garlic leaves (the woods and riverbanks are full of them in early summer)
  • 1tbsp pine nuts
  • 100g goats cheese
  • Yorkshire rapeseed oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
Rub the fat into the flour with a pinch of salt until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add one egg and two tablespoons of cold water and mix to a dough.
Chill for 20 minutes, then roll out to fit a flan tin.
To make the filling, trim the asparagus by snapping off the woody ends, they should also be cut to fit the tart tin. Any trimmings can be chopped fine and added to the filling.
Chop the bacon and fry until golden but not too crisp. Drain off any fat.
Whisk the remaining eggs with the cream mustard and a pinch of salt. Stir in most of the cheese. Add the bacon and pour into the pastry case.
Line up the asparagus neatly in rows across the tart (maybe even top to tail). Sprinkle over the last of the cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
For the salad, cut the gem lettuce in half and fry in a hot pan so it is just golden on the cut sides. Make the pesto by placing a handful of garlic leaves, the pinenuts and goats cheese in a blender and drizzle in rapeseed oil so it forms a paste. Mix this with a little of your usual vinaigrette dressing. Toss the gem lettuce in this dressing.
To serve the asparagus and cheese tart, cut the tart into slices, serve with the dressed gem lettuce and if desired, extra cooked asparagus.

About The Author

Gilly Robinson is head tutor at Malton Cookery School

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