Monday, September 20, 2010

Vegetable tartlets with marinated anchovies

All the farmers markets now seem to be laden with pumpkins, apples and not much else really, and as our Summer sadly draws towards closure in the garden and the abundance of vegetables that once was now seems to be just the season stragglers. A few last hurrahs are needed before we finally turn over to our Autumnal harvest. This recipe is a fantastic use of a few late season vegetables if you still have them and easily serves 4 with a bit of hot bread and maybe a few bitter leaves tossed with lemon juice and olive oil on the side. Don't be afraid of swapping out ingredients to make use of what you have either in your garden or lurking at the back of your fridge, and the anchovies might not be for everybody, but they sure make a difference in the end result.

Pastry
100g flour
100g butter
100g parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg

Filling
2 tblsp olive oil
40g white onions, finely chopped
1 white leek, shredded
250g Swiss chard
250g baby spinach leaves
100g small broad beans
1 espelette pepper, finely chopped
2 tblsp fresh cream cheese
30 anchovy fillets
Juice of 1 lemon
Herbs to garnish

Heat the olive oil and gently fry the onions and leek. Add the Swiss chard, spinach, beans and herbs. Once the leaves are tender, strain the mixture and chop finely. Taste for seasoning. Mix with the cream cheese.

Marinate the anchovies in olive oil, the rest of the pepper and the lemon juice while you make the pastry.

Preheat oven to 170c/350f.

Beat together the flour and butter and stir in the Parmesan. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and stir into the flour mixture.

Form into four dough rounds and roll them out until about 3mm thick. Place into greased tart moulds on a baking tray and put in the oven. Cook for 20 mins and then allow to cool.

Fill the tarts with the vegetables, and pass back through the oven for a final 5 minutes then arrange the anchovies on top and decorate with a handful of ripped herbs.

8 comments:

  1. How absolutely delicious and a brilliant lunch idea. Any particular wine you would recommend with it?

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  2. You know what anonymous, I had a stunning Pinot Gris from Oregon the other day, super chilled, which I think would work tremendously

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  3. Perfect choice. I had an amazing Austrian Riesling with lunch at the weekend - I think would work equally as well.

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  4. Great choice of beverage! I'd definitely go for yours if I wasn't still obsessing myself with the wonderful choices of American wines I have at my disposal. If you look in on www.przman.com we'll be revealing all these great food and wine combinations and more very soon...

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  5. A fabulous way with veggies. I'm a bit fussy about anchovies though, will they or won't they??? D

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  6. Yum yum yum. I'm obsessed with anchovies, could that make me pregnant?

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  7. Dear anonymice, yes the anchovies work, and no I'm pretty sure they will not make you pregnant!

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  8. Oh, shame about that ;)

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