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Vegetable tart with young parmesan cream
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 4 spring onions
- splash olive oil, plus extra for finishing off
- 100ml vegetable stock, plus extra for finishing off
- 50g baby broad beans
- 50g petit pois
- 8 asparagus spears
- 100g mangetout
- few cauliflower florets
- 1/4 bunch radishes
- 1 garlic clove, peeled, left whole and squashed
- sprig thyme
- splash aged sherry vinegar
For the parmesan cream
- 100g young parmesan
- 200ml whole milk
For the shortcrust pastry
- 100g butter
- 50g ground almonds
- 100g plain flour
- 1/2tsp fine salt
- 1tsp dried lavender flowers
- 1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk to glaze
Method
To make the cream, finely grate the parmesan (try to use a very young parmesan as it will melt more easily), then put it in a saucepan with the milk. Heat gently to melt the cheese, then remove from the heat and blend. Strain through a fine sieve, then season with a little salt if necessary and keep to one side at room temperature.
For the shortcrust pastry, put all the ingredients except the egg in an electric mixer and mix to form a crumbly dough. Add the whole egg and mix again until the dough comes together in a ball. On a work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 2.5mm, wrap in cling film and freeze for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Using a 7.5cm pastry cutter, cut out 4 circles, brush with egg yolk, then bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Peel and trim the spring onions, then cut in half. Sauté them in olive oil for 2 minutes, then add the vegetable stock and cook slowly until the onions are meltingly soft. Meanwhile, cook the baby broad beans, petits pois, asparagus and mangetout separately in boiling salted water, one after the other, for about 2–3 minutes. Refresh in cold water, then drain. Cook the cauliflower florets very briefly in boiling water.
Slice the radishes very finely, using a mandolin if possible, then chill in iced water for about 10 minutes to firm them up, then drain thoroughly.
Just before serving, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and sauté all the vegetables (except the radishes) with the garlic and thyme for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and a little extra vegetable stock and leave to cook for a minute.
Tip the vegetables into a colander to drain, removing the garlic and thyme, then put them into a large bowl and season to taste with a little salt. Put a shortcrust pastry disc onto each plate, decorate with a mixture of the vegetables and some radish slices, then season with salt and a few drops of olive oil. Dress with the parmesan cream and serve immediately.
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