Goat cheese and roasted vegetable tart, with olive oil short crust pastry
A couple of years ago I had volunteered to take a cheese and vegetable tart to a party. As it happened, I didn’t have any butter in the fridge, so, I tried to make the short crust pastry with olive oil instead. It worked so well, that this is the recipe that I have used ever since.
Ingredients
For the pastry:
180 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
40ml Negra olive oil
90 ml cold water
For the filling:
2 large courgettes
175 g firm goat cheese
3 large eggs
200ml crème fraiche
Salt and pepper
Takes 55 mins – serves 4
Method
Combine the flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl, and add the Negra olive oil and water, you can mix it in a food processor or by hand, as it is a very easy to make pastry, and it doesn’t need to be chilled.
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan. Lightly dust a surface with flour, and roll out the pastry into a large, 5mm thick circle. Line a deep tart tin with the pastry and trim away excess pastry. Prick all over with a fork, and blind bake it for 10-15 mins until starting to turn golden, and it is crisp and cooked through. Leave to cool.
In the meantime, brush a griddle pan with Negra olive oil and grill the courgette slices until nicely charred, then remove. Mix the eggs with the crème fraiche, seasoning with salt and black pepper. Distribute half of the courgettes and goat cheese on the tart, and pour in the egg mix. Crumble on the rest of the goat’s cheese and the rest of the courgette strips over the top. Bake for 40 mins, until just set, but still a little wobbly. Cool and serve at room temperature.
I always sneak a drizzle of Verde olive oil just before serving.
