Summery Tomato, Basil & Feta Tart With Cheese Pastry!
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Makes 8x12cm/4.8inch individual sized tarts
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours resting time for pastry
Cooking time: 15 minutes plus 20 minutes
For pastry
- 90g/3ozs. cheddar cheese
- 125g/4ozs. cold butter, cut into cubes
- 4 tablespoons cream cheese spread
- 2/3 cup plain all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1/3 cup cornstarch or cornflour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 tablespoons cold water
For filling
- 1/2 red onion, sliced very thinly
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup cream
- 4x 130g packets of Woolworths Gold Sweet Berry Truss Tomatoes
- 1/2 x 270g jar of Woolworths Gold Rosemary Bay Leaf & Juniper Fetta Cheese
- A small handful of fresh basil
Step 1 - Place the cheese in a food processor and whiz to grate - you can also grate the cheese but I'm all for as little effort as possible. Add the butter, cream cheese, flour, cornstarch/cornflour and salt and pulse until it resembles very fine crumbs. Add the water through the chute one tablespoon at a time until it resembles tiny little balls. Empty this out onto a clean surface and bring together and knead for a minute to create a ball of dough. Flatten down and wrap in cling film and allow to rest for 2 hours in the fridge (you can also rest it overnight in the fridge, just take it out 30 minutes before you want to use it).
Step 2 - Generously flour a surface and a rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry until very thin. You can use the pastry to patch holes if you get them but you should be able to get eight pastry cases for this for 12cm/4.8inch tart cases (remembering you larger than a 12cm/4.8inch cutter for this to accommodate the tart sides). Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 3 - Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Dock the base of the pastry with a fork and line the tarts with foil pressing down gently so that the foil sits in the sides of the tart - we don't want the pastry to rise at all as we want it thin and crisp. Add ceramic pie weights or dried rice or beans to weigh it down and bake for 15 minutes until golden. Remove the weights and allow to cool just while you make the filling (it doesn't need to cool particularly much).
Step 4 - Add some thinly sliced onion to the base of the tart. Finely chiffonade four large basil leaves and whisk this along with the eggs and cream and pour a little over the onion and divide among the eight tarts. Crumble some feta in each tart and then cut add four attached tomatoes on top of the tart pressing down gently. Bake for 20 minutes.