Tomato & smoked cheese tart

SERVES 4-6 with a side salad Smoked cheese imbues the most wonderful and subtle flavour to this tart.

1 quantity rough puff pastry

(recipe at right)

4 tbsp wholegrain mustard

¾ cup smoked cheddar,

grated

½ cup fresh breadcrumbs

300g cherry tomatoes,

whole or halved

½ cup black olives

3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra

for drizzling

½ tsp salt and decent grind

black pepper

Handful fresh basil leaves 1 Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Place a tray in to preheat.

2 Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick and line a tart tin (I use an 11cm x 35cm one, but any medium-sized tin will do or even free-form it on an oven tray), pressing the pastry into the corners and sides. Prick the base all over with a fork.

3 Spread the base with mustard and scatter over the cheese, then breadcrumbs. Toss the tomatoes and olives in the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, then pile these on top. Season with salt and pepper.

4 Bake on the heated tray for 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the tomatoes have blistered and cooked through.

5 To serve, remove from the tin, splash with olive oil and scatter over some fresh basil leaves.

EASY ROUGH PUFF PASTRY

250g flour

Pinch sea salt

225g chilled butter

150ml iced water

1 Place the flour and salt in a food processor. Cut the butter into cubes and add to the flour. Pulse until the butter is in large lumps throughout the flour. Drizzle in half of the chilled water and pulse again. Keep drizzling and pulsing until the mixture just comes together – you may not need all of the water. Tip out onto a floured bench and bring the dough together, but don’t knead it. It should be scraggy and lumpy with butter at this stage. Roll out using quick, short strokes until 1.5cm thick and in a rectangle shape. Fold the short ends in to meet in the middle, then fold in half so you have 4 layers of dough. Rotate 90 º, roll out and repeat, then repeat again. Cover and chill for 20 minutes. It is now ready to use.