Summer Vegetable and Cheese Tart

Now... you have to make this tart..

You just have to. You will be amazed by the taste and look of it.

The thought behind it is quite simple. All the left over veggies that you have, you flavor them with a simple dressing. Some tough veggies you boil a bit or steam them.

In your freezer you have a tart dough as I have asked you to do in the past. So you take that dough, line a tart pan with it and blind bake it.

You need some cream cheese, In Greece we have some wonderful fresh creamy and sharp cheeses from the islands called "xinomizithres". I used that one but you can use any type of cream cheese you like.

So you basically bake the tart base, fill it up with the cheese mixture, put the veggies on top and use some herbs and some extra dressing and olive oil and dazzle your friends..

My brother who is my "tester" was a bit taken aback by how elaborate it was but when he tried it he was amazed by the flavor, the contrast of tastes and textures...

It will definitely be the center of attention at your next dinner party..

There is one slight problem though.. and that is it is hard to find what else to serve with it at a dinner party... Even a mousaka will be found lacking...

So, let's see what we will need!

Diffuculty: 2 of 3

Duration:2 hours

Serves:8-12

Ingredients

The ingredients for the dough you will find here

1 egg yolk

For the filling:

300g of cream cheese

1 tblsp of honey

a dash of olive oil

fresh herbs chopped

pepper and maybe salt

For the veggies and dressing:

what ever veggies you have

figs cut in 2-4 pieces depending on size

Fresh herbs, chopped

a nice fruity olive oil and some good vinegar for the dressing

salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven at 180 fan forced.

Prep the dough and line with it a 23 cm pie dish.

Using a fork we pierce the dough in various places on the base to prevent it from rising while baking.

Line the base with some baking paper and put baking weights on top.

Bake for 20-30 minutes till it takes colour.

Remove from the oven, remove the weights and paper and after you beat the egg with a dash of water you coat the base of the tart with the egg mixture using a pastry brush.

Put the pie back in the oven for a few minutes till it becomes nice and shiny.

The egg as it cooks it creates a border not letting the water from the cheese to go through the base of the tart and make it soggy.

Let the tart shell cool on a rack while we prepare the cheese-filling and the veggies.

For the filling we mix the cheese with the rest of the ingredients and taste it. Add more pepper and even some salt depending on the salinity of the cheese.

Layer the tart with the filling.

Also par boil or steam the veggies that need it like carrots, beans etc..

Arrange the veggies on the filling, add the herbs, the dressing and use some more olive oil to drizzle the tart just before serving...

It can keep in the fridge for a day.. but better to serve it the same day.