Monday 21 May 2012

Ricotta and Dill Tart









I feel like a cheat. I've used frozen store-bought puff pastry and frozen spinach for this tart. The experts keep telling me that it's perfectly fine to take these short cuts, but my purists mind keeps telling me I'm a bad girl for dropping my standards. Give me a break purists mind, the puff pastry is "all butter" and the spinach is "all leaf"- sheesh, get over it!

Ricotta and Dill Tart
from Donna Hay's No Time to Cook

2 sheets (25cm x 25cm) store-bought puff pastry, thawed
250g frozen spinach, thawed
600g ricotta
3 eggs
40g finely grated parmesan
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flatleaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped dill leaves
sea salt and cracked black pepper
cream for glazing the pastry
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Line a lose-bottomed tart tin with the two sheets of pastry. Leave about a 3cm overhang around the edge. NOTE: I used a 35cm x 13cm rectangular tin. I bought it for another recipe and now I spend my life trying to find other ways to use it to justify the buying of it. You can use a similar capacity circular one or individual tart tins if that's what you have. Cut the pastry to suit which ever tart tin you use. The cooking time will vary depending on the size of the tin, but just take the tarts out of the oven when the filling is set and the pastry is golden brown.

To make the ricotta and dill  filling, squeeze out excess water from spinach, place in bowl with ricotta, eggs, parmesan, lemon zest, spring onion, parsley, dill, salt and pepper and mix together well. 

Spoon the filling into the pastry lined tart tin. Turn the overhanging pasty into towards the middle to create an edge that encases some of the filling, but leaves the middle exposed. Brush the edges with cream and sprinkle the edges with sesame seeds. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until filling sets and the pastry is golden.


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