Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola Tart!
Christmas Day is probably the only day of the year that the whole family sits down together for a full meal (unless we go out for tea of course!), making it a really special meal. Usually at Christmas we just have soup as a starter, however this year we decided that we'd switch it up a bit, and naturally I offered to whip us up a tasty first course! After trawling through my recipe books for some inspiration, I came across this Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola Tart! Admittedly I'd never tried gorgonzola before, but I knew instantly that this was the tart for us!
Disclaimer, not everyone at ours is a fan of mushrooms, so I did make a Butternut Squash and Goat's Cheese Tart, which happened to be gluten-free too, as a second option. Making two starters, a dessert, and biscuits to give as part of Christmas presents meant I was in the kitchen for a very long time on Christmas Eve, but I simply watched a couple of Christmas films, and old Gavin and Stacey and Doctor Who specials, and enjoyed every second!
But back to the mushroom tart! To start with, I prepared a rich walnut pastry by rubbing butter into flour, adding finely chopped walnuts, and then adding an egg yolk and a little ice cold water. I then rolled the pastry out, lined my new baking tin, and blind baked the case to avoid a soggy bottom later! The recipe called for the use of a food processor to chop the walnuts and prepare the pastry, but seeing as I don't own one finely chopping the walnuts and preparing the pastry by hand worked fine!
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| The tart in all its glory! |
Disclaimer, not everyone at ours is a fan of mushrooms, so I did make a Butternut Squash and Goat's Cheese Tart, which happened to be gluten-free too, as a second option. Making two starters, a dessert, and biscuits to give as part of Christmas presents meant I was in the kitchen for a very long time on Christmas Eve, but I simply watched a couple of Christmas films, and old Gavin and Stacey and Doctor Who specials, and enjoyed every second!
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| Customary cross-section! |
But back to the mushroom tart! To start with, I prepared a rich walnut pastry by rubbing butter into flour, adding finely chopped walnuts, and then adding an egg yolk and a little ice cold water. I then rolled the pastry out, lined my new baking tin, and blind baked the case to avoid a soggy bottom later! The recipe called for the use of a food processor to chop the walnuts and prepare the pastry, but seeing as I don't own one finely chopping the walnuts and preparing the pastry by hand worked fine!
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| All portioned up! |
The filling was equally as simple to prepare as the pastry. To start the filling, I gently fried sliced red onions over a low heat with garlic and thyme for roughly half an hour until they had softened. At the same time, I used a mixture of boiling white wine and water to rehydrate some porcini mushrooms. I then added these mushrooms, along with chestnut and woodland mushrooms, and gently fried again until the mushrooms were beginning to soften!
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| The gorgonzola was surprisingly stringy! |
To finish the filling, I added some single cream and beaten eggs into the filling, producing a creamy mixture to fill the pastry case with. After filling the case, I topped the tart with some chopped walnuts and gorgonzola!
The finished tart had a wonderfully short pastry, whilst the filling was delightfully creamy. The flavours of the gorgonzola and porcini mushrooms complimented each other perfectly, and the tart turned out way better than I would have hoped for!
Is it bad that I've already started to think about next year's Christmas menu?
Gibby x
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