Beautiful recipe from Kat Mead
  • Serves: 8

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs (takes about a minute). The flour should become a light sandy yellow when it’s ready.
  2. Add the egg yolk and water and pulse until it just starts to come together, then tip the everything into a bowl and use your hands to pull it together into a ball. Give it a couple of quick kneads to combine and shape into a round disc.
  3. Use a little extra flour to dust your work surface and place the pastry disc on top. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to around 4mm thickness, and large enough to line a 23cm fluted tart tin.
  4. Carefully roll the pastry over the rolling pin to lift it and then lay it over the tin. Gently press the pastry down into all the corners – using a spare piece of pastry can help you do this and stops fingers going through the pastry. Then, use a very sharp knife to trim around the top to give you a nice clean edge.
  5. Pop the tart tin into the oven and allow the pastry to firm up. This will take 30 minutes to an hour. While the pastry is chilling, you can start to make your filling.
  6. In a large frying pan add the olive oil, chopped onion and pancetta and place over a medium heat. Fry gently until everything is golden brown, stirring occasionally.
  7. Reduce the heat and add the spinach and basil and continue to cook until it has started to wilt down. This should take a couple of minutes.
  8. Add the tomato halves and cook for another 3 minutes. Season well with salt, pepper and some ground nutmeg. Mix everything together and then turn off the heat and allow to cool.
  9. Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and add the ricotta. Whisk everything together well.
  10. Preheat your oven to 180/160°C fan and remove the pastry from the fridge. Line the pastry with non-stick baking paper and fill it with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 20 minutes. Then remove the tray from the oven and carefully remove the hot beans and paper.
  11. Combine the bacon and spinach mix with the egg and ricotta and pour everything into the tart tin.
  12. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until just set in the middle. Allow to stand in the tin for 10 minutes before lifting it out.
  13. You could add a little grated parmesan on top, and it’s great served alongside a rocket salad.