Spinach & Ricotta Tart
A crispy pastry topped with an effective, eye-catching lattice, filled with a super creamy and delicious spinach and ricotta filling, while being healthy and nutritious. The pastry crust is made from chickpea flour, so the tart is entirely grain-free, making it suitable for those following a gluten-free lifestyle, or anyone who is seeking a healthier alternative that doesn’t compromise on taste!
Ingredients
Pastry
- 250 g chickpea flour (gram flour) or you can use plain flour, sifted
- 5 g sea salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 50 g butter, cubed
- 90 ml water
Filling
- 250 g ricotta cheese, thoroughly drained
- 250 g spinach
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 30 g parmesan, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt & pepper
- 1 pinch nutmeg
Egg wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp water
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 425°F, gas mark 7, 210°C (190°C fan-assisted).
- Rub the butter and flour together gently until you reach a sandy consistency, then add the salt.
- In a small bowl mix together the egg yolk and water, make a well in the flour mixture and pour the liquid into the flour, knead together in the bowl into a smooth ball.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour (you can make this dough the night before and keep in the fridge). If you refrigerate overnight, you’ll need longer to let it come to room temperature before rolling.
- For the filling, sauté the washed spinach with the olive oil in a large frying pan on the stove until the spinach leaves have wilted, then add the crushed garlic sauté together for a further 2 minutes.
- Remove the frying pan from the stove and place the spinach in a sieve, squeeze dry to expel as much water as possible from the spinach, before placing on a chopping board to chop roughly.
- In mixing bowl add the ricotta and beat softly until smooth then combine the beaten eggs, parmesan, spinach, nutmeg and season with salt & pepper.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge, let it come to room temperature and cut the mixture into ¾ for the base with a remaining ¼ for the top, any excess pastry cut from the base you can add to the ¼ of pastry for the lattice pastry.
- Lightly flour your work top/parchment paper for rolling out the pastry, then line the base and the sides of a 9-inch loose bottom fluted flan tin with a touch of flour to prevent sticking. Lay the pastry mixture evenly onto the pastry case, making sure the sides and base is equally covered.
- Then using a lattice roll pastry cutter, roll out the remaining dough on a floured surface, slightly over the width of the cutter and slightly over the length of the flan tin, using quite a bit of force roll the lattice roll over the length of the pastry. Then, cut away the side of the dough and carefully open up the sections.
- Once you have carefully opened up the pastry, egg wash the sides of the flan, then gently place the lattice pastry evenly over the filling and press the edges down around the edge of the flan.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the lattice pastry with the egg wash.
- Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the tart is cooked and the pastry is golden.
- Remove from the oven when cooked after ten minutes, carefully remove the tin and leave on a cooling rack, you can serve immediately or reheat for ten minutes before serving
- Enjoy!
- When making this recipe, I’d LOVE to see how you get on so either send me a photo to lisa@myrelationshipwithfood.com or post a picture to Instagram using the #myrelationshipwithfood and tag @myrelationshipwithfood
Notes
LISA’S TIP –You can purchase a lattice roller cutter from a kitchen shop or online – they are super handy in the kitchen and create a super fancy effect that would be difficult to recreate by hand. Weigh all the ingredients carefully beforehand, sift the flour into a bowl first to add more air to the mixture which will give lighter results. Use butter, which is cold and cut into pieces, so that when it is rubbed into the flour it breaks down evenly into fine “crumbs” and does not form a sticky heavy mixture. Add the measured amount of cold or chilled liquid gradually, mixing well with a fork until the mixture begins to bind together. Too much liquid makes a hard pastry which shrinks during cooking. As mentioned above you can make the pastry the day and keep in the fridge overnight. You can also freeze this tart and leave to defrost then reheat. This Spinach & Ricotta tart is great for a picnic served with a garden salad.
