Chloe Lay – Copy and Content

Spring greens & ricotta tart

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This recipe is best made with fresh, seasonal peas, but good-quality frozen peas will also work a treat. It’s simple to make but looks (and tastes) pretty impressive.

Take care not to burn the pastry like I did!

Ingredients – serves 4 (generously)

500g fresh peas in their pods (or about 150g frozen peas)
1 bunch of spring onions
½ bunch of asparagus
1 courgette
extra virgin olive oil
150g ricotta
15g mint
1 lemon
Maldon sea salt
black pepper
1 sheet of shop-bought puff pastry
1 free-range egg

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan.
  2. If using fresh peas, pod them, then cook for 3 minutes in boiling water. Drain and set aside. (If using frozen peas, skip this step and use them straight from the freezer.)
  3. Trim and finely chop the spring onions. Chop the asparagus stalks so they’re about the same size, keeping the tips whole. Finely slice the courgette.
  4. Fry the onions and asparagus stalks (reserve the tips for later) in a tablespoon of oil over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly until just starting to soften – you don’t want them to colour. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.
  5. Tip half of the peas into a blender (or a mixing bowl, if using a stick blender) along with the ricotta and mint leaves. Grate in half the lemon zest, squeeze in all the juice and blitz until it comes together into a pale green mixture. Taste and season well with sea salt and black pepper.
  6. Unroll the puff pastry (keeping it on its baking paper) and lay it in your tart case. Lightly prick the centre a couple of times with a fork – this stops it from puffing up too much when it’s baking.
  7. Spread the ricotta mixture evenly onto the pastry’s centre, leaving a gap of a few centimetres around the edge. Spoon the fried onions and asparagus stalks onto the ricotta mix, then arrange the courgette rounds in a single layer on the top.
  8. Fold over and roughly crimp the pastry edge to form your crust (don’t worry too much about presentation; it will puff up nicely no matter how haphazardly you do it!).
  9. Beat the egg and use it to eggwash the pastry’s edge. Drizzle the veg with a little oil, then bake the pie in the hot oven for 25 minutes (or about 5 minutes less than your packet instructions).
  10. Remove from the oven, add the asparagus tips and remaining peas, drizzle lightly with oil once more, then return to the oven for a final 5 minutes, until golden-brown.
  11. Take the pie to your table and top with a little more lemon zest and a few baby mint leaves, if you like. I serve mine with lemon-dressed rocket, radicchio and toasted hazelnuts. Crusty bread optional but very welcome.

Tips

Keep an eye on your pastry at the end – if it starts to catch, cover the edges with tin foil so the veg can continue cooking without the pastry getting scorched.