Had a bit of a Ready, Steady, Cook! moment the other night – what to do with a bit of leftover potato salad, a random tub of ricotta and the end of a packet of walnuts nibs? Necessity being the mother of coming up with something edible from the odds and sods in the fridge, I present to you this actually genuinely tasty freeform tart. The crust was inspired by this yoghurt crust – it’s nutty with walnut crumbs (à la Hugh) and wholemeal flour, but kept moist with a bit of labneh as the liquid. The filling is ricotta made a little bit richer with grated parmesan, and the sliced potatoes, which were already dressed with chives, parsley and a mustardy dressing.
I think you could adapt this kind of tart for whatever needs using up – here are some ideas from my greedy mind:
- change out the nuts for pecans or hazelnuts
- brown rice, spelt or rye flour in the crust
- use cream cheese, quark, creme fraiche, greek yoghurt as the liquid in the crust
- use goats cheese, mozzarella or cheddar as the binding ingredient for the filling
- use other leftover veg as the filling – grilled courgettes or asparagus, steamed cauliflower or broccoli – anything as long as it’s not too soggy
- bolster the ricotta by stirring in a beaten egg
- dispense with the ricotta entirely and use some leftover cooked spinach as a thin base, cracking a couple of eggs on top for the last 15 minutes of baking
- add strips of prosciutto, ham or fried bacon
OK, I’ve now officially made myself hungry again.
Potato, ricotta and walnut tart
Serves 4 as light lunch
- 50g walnuts
- 120g plain flour
- 50g wholemeal flour
- 100g butter, chilled and diced
- 40g labneh (or use sour cream, cream cheese greek yoghurt or creme fraiche – whatever you have)
- 300g ricotta
- 50g parmesan, grated
- About 8 leftover new potatoes from a salad
- 1 egg yolk
- a splash of milk
Make the pastry, easiest in a food processor: process the walnuts to crumbs, then add the flours and whiz to mix. Now add in the chilled and diced butter and process again until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. In a small bowl, whisk the labneh (or other dairy product) with about 40ml of water until combined. Tip the flour mix out into a bowl and combine enough of the liquid to make a soft dough – go by feel here, you’re going to roll it out in place so it doesn’t need to be firm enough to pick up, but it needs to be dry enough not to stick too much to the rolling pin later on. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
Roll out the pastry between two sheets of parchment, lay on a baking tray and remove the top layer (or, if you don’t have any parchment like me, sprinkle flour on the baking tray and roll out the pastry directly on it). Leaving about an inch around the border, lay sliced potatoes in a ring around the pastry. Fold over the border to form a stuffed potato crust. Now fill the empty space in the middle with a mixture of the ricotta, grated parmesan and the rest of the potatoes. (See the picture of the uncooked tart, above.) Brush the pastry with a glaze made of an egg yolk and a splash of milk. Bake for a good 45 minutes, until the crust is crisp and well browned.
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