This tart recipe removes the effort of making your own pastry, meaning it's super easy to assemble, but still delivers on presentation and flavour. Courgette spirals are baked in a pesto flavoured egg mixture and ready made shortcrust pastry case. It makes for the perfect light summer time meal or even a starter for a dinner party.
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Yields:
4 - 6
Prep Time:
30 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr 15 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 45 mins
Cal/Serv:
637
Ingredients
Flour, for dusting
300g
(11oz) ready-made shortcrust pastry
2
medium eggs and 1 egg yolk
150ml
(5 fl oz (¼ pint)) double cream
3Tbsp.
ready-made basil pesto
3
medium courgettes
Fresh basil leaves to serve, optional
Directions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to line the base and sides of a 33 x 10cm (13 x 4in) rectangular loose-bottom tart tin. Leave pastry overhanging. Prick base with a fork and chill in the fridge for 20min.
Step 2
Line pastry case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Cook in the oven for 25min until sides are crisp. Remove from oven, lift out baking beans and parchment and return to oven for a further 5min until lightly golden on base and it feels sandy to the touch. Trim excess pastry. Reduce temperature to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4.
Step 3
In a large jug, whisk eggs, extra yolk, cream and 1tbsp pesto. Season.
Step 4
Peel courgettes into ribbons, stopping when you reach the seedy middle (discard this), then toss in a bowl with remaining pesto until well coated. Lay about 5 ribbons flat on a board on top of each other. Roll up bundle from one of the short ends to make a spiral shape. Repeat with remaining ribbons.
Step 5
Pour egg mixture into the base of the tart tin. Gently set courgette spirals into the mixture, spacing slightly apart. Bake in oven for about 40min until set. Leave to cool for 10min before serving warm, or serve at room temperature sprinkled with basil, if you like.
GH Tip
This tart can be made in a 20.5cm (8in) round fluted tart tin. Follow instructions above, adding an extra 100ml (3½fl oz) cream and 1 more medium egg to the custard filling.
Get Ahead
To serve tart at room temperature, make up to a day ahead, cool, then chill. Remove from the fridge an hour before serving.
Per Serving:
Calories: 637
Fibre: 3 g
Total carbs: 30 g
Sugars: 3 g
Total fat: 51 g
Saturated fat: 22 g
Protein: 13 g
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An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
