Courgette, Mushroom & Mozzarella Tart

Preparation Time: 1½ hours

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the rough puff pastry:

250g strong white bread flour
1 tsp table salt
250g butter, at room temperature
100ml cold water

For the tart topping:

125g mozzarella
100g mushrooms
1 courgette
4 tbsp sundried tomato paste
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil

  1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
  2. Cut the butter up into small chunks, add to the bowl and loosely rub into the flour and salt until the mixture starts to look like breadcrumbs. The mixture should begin to develop a yellowish tinge and, most importantly, bits of butter should still be visible.
  3. Make a well in the bowl and fill with the cold water, gently mixing until you have a soft rough dough, adding extra flour if needed.
  4. Shape the dough into a thick disc and flatten on both the underside and the topside, as this will make it easier to roll out when coming into contact with a rolling pin.
  5. Wrap in cling film and chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  6. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle.
  7. Roll the dough out until it has tripled in length, about 20cm x 60cm. Keep the edges straight and even.
  8. Take the top third of the dough and fold it down to the centre. Then, as if sealing a letter, fold the bottom third up and over the top third, creating a third layer on top of the first two.
  9. Rotate 90 degrees and roll out until the dough has tripled in length once again. Repeat the folding process, as above, until you have counted your twelfth layer.
  10. Wrap in cling film and chill in the freezer for at least a further 20 minutes.
  11. While the dough is resting, cut the mushrooms and courgette into thin slices and roughly chop the mozzarella into chunks. Set aside.
  12. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
  13. Remove the dough from the freezer and roll out for a final time, creating a further three folds in the process and bringing your total number of folds to fifteen.
  14. Neatly trim into a rectangle and lift onto a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper or a silicone mat. Score a border about 1cm in from the edge and prick the pastry within the border all over with a fork.
  15. Mix the tomato paste and garlic together and spread all over the pastry within the border.
  16. Lightly top with the mozzarella, mushrooms and courgette, taking care not to overburden the dough with any one ingredient as this will hinder the rise of the pastry.
  17. Drizzle with olive oil, then evenly scatter over the Italian seasoning with a little salt and pepper.
  18. Bake for 25 minutes until risen and golden then tuck in!