I love a sweet and salty combination. Bacon caramelised with honey and sprinkled over a salad; sweet, butternut pumpkin and olives or feta in a savoury tart; salted caramel ice cream; salted chocolate crème brulee - and the list goes on.
So having in my possession a jar of lovely organic gluten-free miso, I started thinking sweet and salty … miso and maple syrup maybe. Add the nuttiness of walnuts, the creamy, richness of ricotta and a Revenge shortcrust pastry case and we’re sounding like dessert.
Understandably, miso in a sweet tart may sound a little odd to some, however, a good quality miso, used judiciously, can add a depth and breadth of flavour, umami if you like, to many sweet or savoury dishes.
In our Maple Syrup, Miso, Ricotta and Walnut Tart it worked beautifully to give a deliciously, mellow character which seemed to heighten all the other flavours.
Without the miso, our tart will still be delicious but we’d like to encourage you to be adventurous.
Rosie
MAPLE SYRUP, MISO, RICOTTA AND WALNUT TART
Serves 6-8
Tart Base
1 24cm shortcrust pastry case, blind baked (see below)
Icing sugar for dusting
Whipped cream to serve
Filling
300 gm fresh full-fat ricotta
2 eggs
150 ml pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon miso
170 gm walnuts, lightly toasted, roughly chopped, plus 10 good-looking halves for garnish
50 gm almonds, lightly toasted, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Beat the ricotta and eggs until smooth. Add maple syrup and miso and beat until smooth.
Fold in chopped nuts. Pour into the blind baked pastry shell. Place the reserved walnut halves on top. Bake for 30-35 minutes. The centre should be still a little wobbly. It will firm up as the tart cools.
Place on a rack to cool then remove from the tin and place on a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and served with whipped cream.
Shortcrust Pastry
Makes enough for 2 x 24cm tart cases
250 gm Revenge Gluten-free Almond Plain Flour Mix (see below)
85 gm caster sugar
65 gm unsalted butter, cold, cubed
1 whole egg
1 pinch salt
Place dry ingredients into a food processor and process for a couple of seconds to combine.
Add cold butter cubes and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add egg and process until the pastry comes together into a ball. You may need to add iced water, a teaspoon at a time.
Place pastry onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat into a disc about 1cm thick. Refrigerate for an hour before rolling out. (Pastry will keep in the fridge for at least a week.)
Preheat oven to 160° C.
Remove half the pastry from the fridge and knead until it is smooth and pliable. Roll out in between two pieces of non-stick baking paper to around 3mm thick. Line a 24cm loose bottom flan tin with the pastry and return to the fridge until firm. Remove from the fridge and blind bake.
The remaining pastry can be kept in the fridge for at least a week or rolled out to line a 24cm flan tin and then frozen – very handy to have on hand. Remove from the freezer and blind bake.
To blind bake:
Line your chilled pastry-lined tin with foil, pressing well into the corners. Fill with baking weights, (raw rice, dried beans or purchased pastry weights all work equally well) pushing them up the sides of the shell.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the foil and baking weights. Return the tart shell to the oven for a further 7 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on rack.
The cooked pastry case will keep, wrapped in plastic wrap for 3-4 days.
REVENGE GLUTEN-FREE ALMOND PLAIN FLOUR MIX
280 gm almond meal
210 gm besan flour
280 gm fine white rice flour
175 gm corn flour
Whip up a batch and store in the fridge.