Mushroom, thyme and pecorino tart with buckwheat pastry

Tamara West

I decided to do something a bit different and make a buckwheat pastry (from buckwheat flour), which has an earthy flavour and also happens to be gluten-free. Of course, if you wanted to, you could just use regular home-made or store-bought shortcrust pastry. The filling has also been made much healthier by using yoghurt, instead of cream. Serve this tart with a salad of rocket, pear and more shaved pecorino (a hard Italian sheep’s cheese, not dissimilar to parmesan). If you don’t have pecorino, a good parmesan will work fine as a substitute. Makes one 24cm tart, serves 4-6.

Buckwheat pastry

300 g	Buckwheat flour
120 g	Butter, cold, diced
70 g	Pine nuts, toasted
1	Egg
2 Tbsp	Water
1 Tbsp	Fresh thyme
½ tsp	Salt
½ tsp	Freshly ground black pepper

Mushroom, yoghurt, thyme and pecorino tart filling

2 Tbsp	Butter
2	Shallots, very finely diced
400 g	Mushrooms, sliced, I used portobello, button, shiitake (Main)
2 cloves	Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp	Tarragon leaves, chopped
1 cup	Pecorino cheese, finely grated, about 60g
3	Eggs, beaten
⅔ cup	Thick greek yoghurt
⅓ cup	Rocket leaves, to garnish

Directions

1. Heat oven to 200C. Blitz all pastry ingredients in a food processor until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Push together into a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill (this will make it easier to roll).
2. Tear off two 30x30cm squares of baking paper. Place pastry between the sheets of paper and roll out to 1cm thickness. Remove top sheet of baking paper. Use the bottom sheet to lift up pastry, and invert into 24cm tart tin with a removable base. Remove baking paper and push pastry into the corners and up the edges of the tart tin.
3. The pastry is quite delicate and may break. Just pinch it together wherever this happens. Cover pastry with baking paper and fill with dried beans/rice/baking beans. Blind-bake for 20 minutes, until just golden. Remove the beans and baking paper and bake for a further 4 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 160C.
4. Heat butter in large fry pan over medium to high heat. Add shallots and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and fry until cooked and reduced in volume by half, about 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for a further one minute. Season well with salt and pepper.
5. Whisk eggs, yoghurt and grated cheese together. Combine mushrooms with yoghurt mixture and season well with salt and pepper. Pour into pastry and bake for 40-50 minutes until just set. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before carefully removing from the tart tin. Scatter over rocket leaves for garnish, and serve with salad and chutney on the side.