Moving on from my fruit tarts I'm now thinking up exciting new combinations using vegetables instead. If you don't like to make your own pastry buy the block butter puff. It is by far the best and far superior to those flats sheets from the frozen section of the supermarket.
Heat a thin, flat baking sheet and carefully removed it from the oven and line it with baking paper, roll out the pastry to whatever size suits you and prick a 5cm border all the way round the pastry to make an edge. Place the pastry on the hot, lined sheet. Thinly slice vegetables of your choice, season and moisten with olive oil and glaze the edge with milk or a beaten egg and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes until the pasty is cooked and brown.
The above photograph is my version of a recipe I saw in a newspaper recently: -
I gently fried a few mange tout (snow peas) and 1 small leek, white part only and 3 spring onions, white and green parts, until softened but still a little crunchy. I sliced 1 courgette (zucchini) on a mandolin lengthways and made alternating layers with slices of proscuitto up and down the pastry. I placed the green vegetable mixture on top of the proscuitto and drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the whole thing and seasoned it well with sea salt and many twists of cracked black pepper.
It was baked for 25 minutes at 180C. Served four and made a nice lunch alternative.
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