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Sunday, 11 January 2009 17:04 |
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 I love making pastry. Over the last year I have discovered that it's not the arcane art I had imagined at all. Rather, it's a doorway into a whole new realm of cooking, full of versatility and creative expression. My grandmother had arthritis in her wrists and fingers which she always said that she kept at bay by making scones and pastry by hand.
When I saw these little cherry tomatoes, all tender and full of intense promise I just knew that they would marry well with feta into a tart. The best part of it was how magically the Mediterranean aromas filled our home with their feel good factor.
For the pastry I used:
- 100g of wholemeal flour
- 100g of white flour
- 100g of fridge-cold butter
- half a glass of ice cold water
I used two bags of cherry tomatoes, 200g of feta, and a whole head of garlic (we love garlic here!). In the summer I'll add fresh marjoram (we didn't have any today).
Mix the two flours together in a bowl thoroughly and then with the tips of your fingers massage in the butter until it's a breadcrumb texture with no lumps of butter. The colder your hands are the better for this, so either make sure that you run them under cold water first, or, if it's winter, go out for a cold walk first.
Make a pit in the middle of the mixture and pour in the water in one go. Gently work it with your hands until all the water has been absorbed and you have a ball of dough. Gently sift some flour all round the ball so that it's not sticky before wrapping it in clingfilm and putting it in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 8.
Roll out the pastry and put in a 10" pie dish. Sprinkle the base with some fine ground semolina, which will stop the pastry getting too soggy.
Crumble the feta and cover the base with it. The easiest way is to put the block of feta in a plastic bag and roll it between your hands.
In a bowl, coat all the tomatoes in olive oil, before pricking them with a knife (to stop them exploding) and arranging in the tart. Next, peeel and slice in fine lengthways slices the cloves of garlic and put them in the spaces left by the tomatoes.
Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil.
Cook for 25 minutes. Allow to cool somewhat before serving (otherwise the base will be very mushy).
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