Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

I have just read My French Affair by Amanda Taylor- Ace ( publisher Random House) a really amusing light read about an adventurous and delightfully outrageous New Zealand woman who packed her bags and travelled to France, loved it and stayed and renovated two eighteenth century houses into guest accomadation where she also runs cookschools.The book includes some of her recipes and here is my version of Luce's Famous Tart from this book.

 She uses different kinds cheeses, slices, crumbled or grated. It worked well for me with crumbled feta .Instead of cream I use milk which was still tasty but not so rich and sometimes exchange the tomato for a red pepper and add a clove of chopped garlic. If there is parsley in the garden I may use it but this tart is quite happy without.

Commercial flaky pastry works well. After lining the tin I leave it in in the fridge for 15 minutes, then prebake in a 200 degree C oven before adding the vegetables and cheese.

What made Luce's tart different is the dijon mustard which gives it a surprising little kick.

I used a 29 cm non stick metal tart tin.

Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

Ingredients:

2 dessertspoons of dijon mustard
1 courgette chopped
1 red pepper/tomat chopped
1 eggplant chppped
2 onions chopped
1 clove of garlic ( finely chopped)
4 eggs
300 ml milk/cream
125 gram of feta


Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
Prebake the flaky pastry crust for 10 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature to 180C
Spread mustard over the pastry
Saute the vegetables in a little oil ( I did this for about 10-15 minutes until they were lightly browned and dry.)
Put them in the tart.
Beat the eggs and cream and pour over the vegetables.
Sprinkle over 125 grams of crumbled feta
Pour into the prepared pastry shell
Bake for 30 minutes

Luce sometimes replaces the vegetables with tuna fish , or uses just tomatoes and cheese.