
Method
Sweet potato and goats' cheese tartlet
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C /gas mark 4. Put the
sweet potato cut side up onto a baking tray. Drizzle over the olive
oil, season well with salt and pepper and bake for about 45
minutes. The potato is ready when a knife slides into the flesh
with no resistance.
- Remove the potato from the oven and scoop out the flesh,
discarding the skin. Mash to a puree and leave to one side to
cool.
- While the sweet potato is cooking and cooling, make the
pastry by blending together the butter, cheese, flour, polenta and
egg yolk.
- When the ingredients are combined, knead into a ball,
wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for about 30
minutes.
- Finish the filling by mixing together the whole eggs,
yolks, cream, crumbled goats' cheese and the pureed sweet
potato.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste.
- On a floured surface, roll out the pastry and line a 25cm
tart tin. Return to the fridge for another 10 minutes.
- Blind bake the pastry (cut a square piece of greaseproof
paper about 30cm, scrunch it up and place on the pastry, fill with
baking beans) for about 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C/gas
mark 4. Remove the paper and baking beans and cook for a further 4
minutes.
- Pour the filling into the tart case, turn the oven down
to 160°C/gas mark 3 and bake for about 20 minutes or until the
filling has set and the pastry is golden.
Tips:
- Best served at room temperature, but you can also make
smaller tarts and serve them hot as a starter with a little walnut
and herb dressing.
- These tartlets are great on picnics as they can suffer a
lot of moving around and juggling.
- For extra texture, cut some sweet potato into small cubes
and toss in a little olive oil. Add to the filling.
© Felice Tocchini 2011
Food photography by Alex Miller.
Ingredients
For the pastry
90g butter
90g mascarpone cheese
170g plain flour
70g polenta flour
1 egg yolk
For the filling
1 medium sweet potato halved lengthways
1 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs, plus 3 egg yolks
250ml double cream
200g goats' cheese crumbled
4 sprigs thyme, chopped
Salt and pepper