Savoury tart made with puff pastry. With fennel, mint and feta.

Variable mainly northwest 3 or 4.

Slight.

Showers.

Moderate or good.

While (bulb) fennel is excellent raw or fried in olive oil, cooking it in milk gives it a new dimension. The taste is much softer and less punchy, but has still the slight anise flavour and pairs wonderful with goats or feta cheese.

Add to that puff pastry and you have already a full blown meal.

There are some people out there who enjoy doing their own puff pastry (here is a recipe if you feel so inclined, and here is a super fast version), but I am not one of them. Most of the ones you can buy are truly awful, but two are so great that you wont bother anymore. The first is sadly not available all the time. Aldi`s Specially Selected All Butter Puff Pastry (not their usual one) and the second is from the opposite of the price range: Dorset Pastry Puff Pastry (frozen).

I can’t recommend the latter enough; it is nearly as good as homemade. Yes, it is expensive, but so is homemade. On the other hand you won’t have any waste. The sheet is slightly bigger than the ones from other produces and thus half of it gives a very substantial meal while a quarter, combined with a salad, a light supper or lunch. It has the perfect thickness, and, once it is defrosted, is very pliable. How pastry made with butter should be. Just defrost it, cut it in 4 equal sized pieces and refreeze the ones you don’t need (separated by cling film or waxed paper). All you need to do is remember getting it out in the morning and you have in the evening in 30 minutes, with very little work, a lovely dish.

You can fill the tart anyway you like. Replace the fennel (but do try it, it is really good) with courgette, tomatoes, peppers (or roasted peppers from a jar), asparagus, pear, cooked potatoes, butternut squash.. the choice is yours. Ditto the cheese. Feta works very well, but goat`s cheese, gruyere, gouda, cheddar, camembert or blue cheese (with the pears) just create a different dish. I like the tiny leaves of the fennel bulb, but feel free to replace or combine them with mint, dill, basil or coriander.

Fennel, Mint and Feta tart

1 small sheet of puff pastry (about 100gr), defrosted if necessary

3 tablespoons of milk

half a small fennel, cut in thin slices

salt and white pepper

3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt

1 teaspoon of the fennel wisps, cut

1 teaspoon finely cut mint leaves

40gr feta cheese, broken in small pieces

lemon zest of a quarter of a lemon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200 gr.

In the meantime heat the milk with a pinch of salt and white pepper, add the fennel slices and cook until tender (about 7-10 minutes, depending on thickness). Drain.

The next step in down to personal taste: Either transfer the rolled out sheet to a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Bake until light golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet. Or don’t bother with pre-baking. As I did. Yes, it is a bit soggier but I find it does not matter too much.

Mix yoghurt, the herbs, the feta and season. Put this mixture on top of the pastry but leave a border. On top of the mixture distribute the cooked and drained fennel and fold the border slightly over to give it a rustic look and prevent possible leakage. There will be a bit of leakage but dont worry; just make sure your waxed sheet is big enough.

Bake until the cheese mixture is slightly puffy and the pastry on top and at the side golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with the lemon zest.

Verdict:

Would be perfect for a midweek meal. Super fast, hardly any cooking involved and can be adapted to whatever is in your vegetable drawer.

And I did not mind that it had a bit of a soggy bottom. But if you have time, give it the extra 15 minutes. However you can’t have a crusty top then since you can’t fold it over again.

And for the other half of the fennel? That will be my lunch salad tomorrow.

Update:

A friend told me that someone recommended using a gelatine sheet to prevent “soggy bottoms” in pastry. Had to try that out, so had the tart again for lunch today. No gelatine sheet but 6gr of Dr. Oetker gelatine powder (half a packet) with 50ml of hot water. Let it cool a bit and then brush the pastry sheet (leave a border). Put the sheet for a few minutes into the fridge, then brush again. Wait a few minutes and then fill.

This is perfect! The bottom was crispy. No more blind baking! Why did no one tell me that neat little trick before????