Serves: 4

Preparation:  25 minutes

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

20 mins for blind bake pastry /

20 mins for final bake with veg and cheese

Category: Vegetarian / Pasta

Plan:  Prepare freshly on the day

Difficulty:  Easy

Course: Main

Cuisine: English/Mediterranean

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

with Goat's Cheese and

Anchovy Stuffed Olives

I seem to spend a lot of time these days looking for new ideas for either vegan or vegetarian tart recipes.   As I generally use one of my vegan/vegetarian pastry recipes (Miscellaneous) - a simpler option would be to use a ready roll puff or short pastry.   

With that in mind, I have given two ways to present this dish, either to make

your own pastry, follow the link, and bake, as above.

Alternatively, you can make a Galette and even add Parmesan to the crust

and give the ready roll pastry a brush of egg for a beautiful golden finish.

This recipe is a Pescatarian version, which uses a soft creamy goat's log cheese and also some anchovy stuffed olives, to add piquancy.   

To keep this either vegan or vegetarian, you could use a vegan cheese and just plain green olives.

Utensils

• Pastry board and rolling pin / extra flour to dust
• Large flan dish
• Roasting dish for aubergine and courgettes
• Small bowls to lay out ingredients
• Chopping board
• Sharp knife
• Cheese grater

Ingredients:

• For the Pastry - either use ready rolled puff or shortcrust pastry, or better still make your own from one of these - Vegetarian Pastry Recipes
  
• 6 medium sized tomatoes, cut into quarters
  
• 2 roasted red peppers (from a jar and stored in brine), sliced
  
• One can 350g artichoke hearts, drained and cut in half
  
• One courgette, sliced
  
• One aubergine, sliced and then each slice halved
  
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
  
• Freshly ground black pepper
  
• Sea Salt
  
• One log of soft goat's cheese (I used Abergavenny Goat's Cheese) cut into slices
  
• Half 400g can of anchovy stuffed olives (or plain olives to keep this vegetarian)

To Garnish

For a Vegetarian option, you can, if you wish, add a circle of grated Parmesan to the edge of the pastry before folding and  brush the Galette edges with a beaten egg.

Generous shavings of Peccorino cheese on top of the whole dish - adds a deeper piquancy of flavour.

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
   
   
2. Prepare the pastry recipe, blind bake for at least 20 minutes and remove from the oven, check that the pastry is cooked properly.
   
   
3. Place the prepared aubergine and courgettes into a shallow roasting dish, season and drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, don't allow them to char.   Remove and set aside.
   
   
4. Fill the blind baked pastry with the red peppers, aubergines and courgettes.
   
   
5. Place the artichokes and tomatoes on top and put the pieces of goat's cheese in between them.
   
   
6. Finally add at least half a can of drained green olives and scatter.
   
   
7. Place the tart back into the oven and cook for a further 20 minutes or so until the tomatoes start to cook and the cheese begins to melt.
   
   
8. If you choose to use ready roll pastry, place the rectangles on top of one another with the top one placed sideways to form a kind of cross using a sheet of grease proof paper to facilitate moving the pastry onto a flat baking tray.
   
   
9. Place all the veg on top, season and then add the slices of cheese and olives.
   
   
10. Finally, fold the edges of the pastry in to form a galette to prevent juices escaping.  You could also add a ring of Parmesan to the pastry edges before folding in to form a cheese crust.
    
    
11. If you wish, you can brush the pastry galette edges with beaten egg.
    
    
12. Place into the oven for at least 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the vegetables are cooked.