Friday Pie-Day: The Versatile Cheese and Tomato Tart

Cheese and tomato tarts are the one of the easiest things to dress up how you please, with very little risk of it going wrong.

Here's my version.

I like using double cream in the cheese filling to keep it nice and smooth. No lumpy bits here thank you. It's easier to pour the cheese filling onto your baked tart base first, and then adding in your veg, rather than mixing it altogether in the bowl before just slopping it all on.

Go for cute cherry or plum tomatoes and then you can pretty much add any other veg you like - I've just gone for some nice crunchy celery here, but you could try peppers, sweetcorn, courgette, green beans, mushrooms, or even a sneaky bit of bacon ;-)

And to make it a bit more special, one of my favourite things to do is to spread a layer of mustard on the pastry base before adding the filling, yum!

Oh, and don't worry too much if you don't manage to roll the pastry out into a perfect rectangle to line the sides of your flan tin...

(Clearly, I never do this)

I always end up with bits of pastry overflowing one side and not enough in one corner or something - so I just rip that extra piece off and stick it where there's a lack of tart side with some beaten egg before baking. See, everybody wins!

Easy Cheese and Tomato Mustard Tart

For a 12 x 8" flan tin (15 slices):

• 150g cheddar cheese, grated
• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 celery stick, chopped
• 2 tbsp red onion, chopped
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 200ml double cream
• 1 egg, beaten
• 450g shortcrust pastry

1) Roll out the pastry to a large rectangle to line the base and sides of the tin. Prick the base with a fork, cover with some foil and some baking beads.

2) Bake blind at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and beads to bake for another 5 minutes until lightly brown. Set aside.

3) Fry the onion in a pan, then turn down to the lowest heat and stir in the cream and mustard.

4) In a bowl, mix the cheese with the beaten egg. Add in the onion mixture.

5) Pour the whole mixture into the baked pie crust. Scatter over the celery, then place the tomato halves evenly over the top (2 per slice!).

6) Return to the oven at a reduced heat of 190 degrees C for another 25-30 minutes until the filling is set.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie-Day adventures.

More vegetarian recipes!