Leek galettes with olive and parsley salad

A galette is the French name for a free-form open tart. If you can’t be bothered making your own pastry, use store-bought sheets of flaky puff. I like serving these galettes with a mound of tangy olive salad on top, it’s the perfect way to cut their richness.

Ready in 1 hour

Serves 6

FAST FLAKY PASTRY

200g unsalted butter, chilled

1½ cups plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ cup sour cream

FILLING

3 Tbsp butter

2 large leeks, white and 1/3 of green part halved, washed and cut into 2cm slices 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 cup mascarpone or cream cheese ½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Zest of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

To serve:

OLIVE AND PARSLEY SALAD

1¼ cup tightly packed Italian parsley leaves

2 tbsp capers, chopped

14 black kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

¼ medium red onion, very thinly sliced 1 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

To make the pastry, dice butter then pulse with flour and salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sour cream and continue to pulse until dough starts to form a ball. Press dough into a disc, wrap in waxed paper or beeswax wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

To make the filling, heat butter in a large pot and cook leeks and thyme over a low heat until softened, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in mascarpone, parmesan, lemon zest and salt and pepper to taste. Cool.

Preheat oven to 200C and line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Divide pastry into 6 pieces and roll each out into a disc about 18cm across. Place on baking trays and spoon leek mixture evenly onto the centre of each round, leaving a 2cm edge. Fold edges over to partially cover filling and chill for about 5 minutes. Bake until pastry is golden and crisp, 20-25 minutes.

While tart cooks, make the black olive and parsley salad by combining all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

To serve, pile olive and parsley salad in the centre of each galette.