Easy Eats: Green Tart

A few shortcuts like store-bought pastry and frozen spinach make this beautiful tart come together quickly on a weeknight.

Kelly GibneyChef
  • prepare
  • cook
  • 4 servings
  • Easy
A rectangular shaped spinach tart decorated with pine nuts and basil leaves, on a wooden board lined with baking paper.
Caption:Pine nuts add tasty, toasty flavour and texture to this spinach tart.Photo credit:Kelly Gibney

Parmesan, lemon zest and plenty of fresh basil make the filling of this tart super fresh and fragrant.

Serve with a big green salad and lemony olive oil dressing for a lovely dinner, or bring along to shared meals and picnics. It's delicious warm or cold.

Don’t skip the pine nuts. They add a tasty, toasty flavour and the texture is fantastic.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ sheets frozen puff pastry
  • 200g frozen spinach, thawed in the fridge
  • 250g ricotta
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Cracked black pepper
  • 1-2 courgettes, sliced very thinly
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • Extra fresh basil to garnish (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan bake.
  2. Grease a 35 x 10cm loose-bottomed tart tin (a 20cm round tin should also work).
  3. Let the pastry thaw just enough to make it pliable. Lay it over the tin and then gently press it into the base and sides. There should be a 1cm overlap where the two separate pieces meet to properly line the tin. Lightly press this together. Trim the pastry around the top edge.
  4. Squeeze the frozen spinach very tightly to remove all excess liquid. Combine this in a bowl with ricotta, eggs, parmesan, lemon zest, fresh basil, salt and a generous grind of cracked pepper. Mix very well.
  5. Spoon into the pastry case and smooth out with the back of a spoon. Take the courgette slices and lay them slightly overlapping down each long side of the tart. Season the courgette slices with a little salt and some cracked pepper. Sprinkle over the pine nuts.
  6. Place the tart in the oven on a rack that is sitting slightly lower than the middle. This is to cook the bottom piece of pastry well.
  7. After 15 minutes, move the tart up higher in the oven to the middle. Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
  8. Leave to sit for 10 minutes, before cutting. A sprinkle of fresh basil leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil is a nice way to finish it.

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