Pea, mozzarella and lemon tart
-
Published: 8 Jun 15
-
Updated: 18 Mar 24
Grab a pack of puff pastry and give Georgina Fuggle’s vibrant vegetarian tart a go, made with lots of mozzarella, peas and lemon.
For more great vegetarian combos, why not try beetroot and goat’s cheese, leek and feta or fennel and broad bean tarts instead.
-
Serves 4-6
-
Hands-on time 15 min, oven time 35 min
Ingredients
- 320g ready rolled all-butter puff pastry
- Plain flour for dusting
- 200g frozen peas, defrosted
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 250g ricotta, strained of excess liquid (see food team’s tips)
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 200g mozzarella ball, torn
- Finely grated zest 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
- Handful cress
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/ gas 6. Roll the puff pastry into a 30cm x 25cm rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Slide the pastry onto a floured baking sheet, then top with a second floured baking sheet (this acts as a weight while the pastry cooks and prevents it rising too much).
- Bake the pastry for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven. If the pastry has puffed up regardless of the weight, gently press the top baking sheet down to flatten it. Allow to cool for a minute or two.
- Put three quarters of the peas, the garlic cloves and 1-2 tbsp water in a blender or food processor and whizz until you have a rough, bright green paste. In a separate bowl, combine the strained ricotta and the egg. Add the pea paste to the ricotta mixture and mix very lightly so there are still visible pockets of green and white. Taste, then season with salt and pepper.
- Dollop the combined mixture onto the tart base. Top with the remaining whole peas and the torn mozzarella. Season again, then bake for 15 minutes or until the ricotta mixture has puffed slightly and the edges of the tart are beginning to turn golden brown.
- Remove the tart from the oven and sprinkle over the lemon zest, mint and cress. Serve immediately, cut into generous squares.
Recipe from May 2015 Issue
Nutrition
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 390kcals
- Fat
- 25.5g (13.9g saturated)
- Protein
- 17g
- Carbohydrates
- 23.6g (2.2g sugars)
- Fibre
- 2.2g
- Salt
- 0.9g
delicious. tips
To strain the ricotta, put it in a sieve over a bowl for a few minutes until the excess liquid has drained away.
Don’t chop the mint until the last minute as the pieces can turn black at the edges
Bake the tart base up to a day in advance, leave it to cool, then store in an airtight container. Continue with the recipe the next day from step 3.