Ingredients
9 oz plain pastry
Cold roasted vegetables
1 tbsp lavender or rosemary honey
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
A small handful of ground or finely chopped filberts
Sprigs of rosemary and thyme
Sea salt and black pepper


Directions
Roll the pastry cut and line a greased loaf pan. Bake the pastry blind for 20 minutes and leave to cool. Combine the honey, vinegar, and oil. Gently toss the vegetables in this dressing and add the filberts. Transfer the vegetables to the tart shell, season to taste, garnish with the rosemary and thyme, and serve.


TIP Baking "blind" means cooking a pastry shell without any filling. To prevent it from puffing up, the base needs to be filled with dried beans or baking beans. The advantage of the latter is that they diffuse the heat, thus cooking the pastry base as well as the sides exposed to the heat of the oven. Whether you use dried beans or proper baking beans, you need to make sure you remove them before adding the filling if your guests are to retain their beautiful and expensive crowns! You can use finely chopped or sliced almonds instead of the filberts. Try using differently shaped baking pans. They may look better and be easier to cut and serve from.

 

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Excerpted from Cooking with Friends by Trish Deseine. Copyright 2001 by Trish Deseine. Excerpted with permission by Silverback Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.