This tart is spread with a tapenade / ricotta mixture before being topped with tomatoes, feta and black olives. Tapenade is a black olive, anchovy, caper spread that can be bought in jars in most supermarkets. It can get a bit oily around the top though, and needs a good mix before using.
If you want to make your own tapenade, here’s a blue print:
Tapenade
1 ½ cup olives (pitted) You can use a combination of green and black but I tend to go with kalamata
2 anchovy fillets
1 tbsp capers
1 clove garlic (peeled)
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp olive oil
Ground black pepper
- Put everything into a processor and blitz to a thick paste.
Greek Salad Tart (serves 6 as a starter or 2 – 4 as dinner)
1 sheet of defrosted puff pastry
2 cups of halved cherry tomatoes
¾ cup cubed / crumbled feta cheese
½ cup pitted halved kalamata olives
3-4 tbsp tapenade
3-4 tbsp ricotta (or cream cheese if that’s what you have on hand)
2 cups arugula (rocket)
Olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
Pepper
½ tsp oregano
- Pre heat the oven to 450
- Lay the pastry sheet onto some parchment and roll out to get rid of the creases. Score a border around the edge and prick the pastry in the middle with a fork.
- Mix the tapenade with the rictotta, then spread the tapenade over the pastry (inside the border)
- Scatter the tomatoes, the olives and the feta over the tart. Season with a grinding of fresh black pepper and ½ tsp oregano. Drizzle with a little olive oil
- Put the tart onto a tray and bake for 20 – 25 mins. If your oven is a bit old and unreliable, like mine, turn the tart around half way through cooking in case one bit of oven is hotter than another and the tart cooks unevenly (i.e. one part raw, one part ash, as in my oven).
- Once cooked, top with handfuls of rocket dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.
Serving suggestions:
- Scatter toasted pine nuts on top
- Turn a dinner into a feast by adding mezze – hot pitta breads, taramasalata, tzatziki, stuffed vine leaves, and any other treats the deli counter has to offer
This recipe first appeared in a post about a fantasy world of summer in the dead of winter, and the real world issues of Sara’s love life.