This is a nice recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day for a simple puff pastry mixed mushroom tart. Ideally (according to Hugh anyway) the mushrooms should have been freshly hand-plucked from the countryside immediately prior to making the tart. I found an ordinary tub of button mushrooms did pretty well. I imagine a mixture of wild mushrooms would look very effective.
Divided into three, the tart formed part of a simple, light supper. You could also serve it as a starter, or increase the quantities for a more substantial main course. It’s simple and quick to make, especially if you already have the puff pastry, either homemade or out of a packet. Apologies for the poor quality of photos, I’ll have to do another one some time to take some better ones!
Ingredients:
- 25 g unsalted butter
- 200 g mushrooms
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 25 g white breadcrumbs
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I used thyme instead)
- 200 g puff pastry or rough puff pastry
- 1 medium egg, beaten
- 1 heaped tbsp strong cheese (eg. parmesan or mature cheddar)
- salt and pepper
Put the oven on to 200°C/390°F/gas mark 6. Fry the mushrooms in the butter, with a pinch of salt, until they start to get soft. Add the garlic and continue to fry until the water has evaporated from the mushrooms and they are tender. Take them off the heat and stir in the herbs, lemon zest and bread crumbs, and season.
Roll out the pastry into a (rough) circle about 20 cm (8 in) in diameter. Put the pastry on a greased baking tray. Spread the mushroom mixture on the pastry, leaving a border of approximately 1-2 cm (1/2 in). (You can make this more prominent by scoring a line around the border, but not going all the way through the pastry.)
Bake the tart for about 20 minutes and serve.
