I love puff pastry tarts. The ease of just unrolling a sheet, scattering it with something delicious and giving it a quick stint in the oven, and dinner has almost cooked itself.
This tart with an olive tapenade-spiked cream cheese base, asparagus and eggs works well for a week night dinner.
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
320g ready-rolled puff pastry
150g full-fat cream cheese
3 heaped teaspoons black olive tapenade
400g asparagus
1 teaspoon olive oil
Sea salt
4 medium eggs
1 teaspoon aleppo chilli flakes (optional)
METHOD
Pre Heat the oven to 220C
Unroll the pastry on to a baking tray, using the paper it came wrapped in to line the tray. With a sharp knife, score a border all around the pastry 2½cm from the outer edge.
Mix the cream cheese and tapenade in a small bowl, then spread this all over the pastry up to the scored border.
Snap or cut the woody ends off the asparagus, tip the spears into a bowl, add the olive oil and a half-teaspoon of salt, and toss to coat. Arrange the spears all over the pastry, drizzle over the oil from the bowl, then bake for 15 minutes.
Take the tart out of the oven, make four wells in the topping, and crack in the eggs.
Turn down the oven to 200C then bake the tart for six minutes more, until the egg whites are set and the yolks are set on top but still soft to the touch – they should be runny inside.
Scatter the tart with some flaky sea salt and the chilli flakes, if using, and serve immediately.
Original Recipe Rukmini Iyer writing in the Guardian
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