Asparagus tart with puff pastry and ricotta cream
Recipe for the easiest asparagus tart, with a creamy ricotta filling on a crisp puff pastry base.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 roll puff pastry
- 300 g fresh green asparagus, preferably thin - approx. 30 spears
- 150 g ricotta
- 35 g Parmesan, finely grated
- 1 clove garlic, crushed or grated
- 1/2 lemon, juice and finely grated zest
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- Salt and pepper
- Oil
- Fresh thyme for the top (optional)
Instructions
- Brush a sheet of baking parchment with a little oil and unroll the puff pastry onto it.
- Score the puff pastry with a knife about 2 cm in from the edge all the way round – not deep, just a light score line.
- Sprinkle the border with sesame seeds and pre-bake the pastry in a preheated conventional oven (top and bottom heat) for 10 min. at 200°C.
- Trim the ends off the green asparagus – ideally they should all be the same length and fit inside the scored "frame" of the tart.
- Blanch the green asparagus in a little lightly salted water in a frying pan for 3-4 min. Then rinse them in plenty of cold water and pat them dry in a tea towel.
- Stir the ricotta together with the Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Spread the ricotta cream over the slightly cooled puff pastry base. Spread it with the back of a spoon – as far as possible, avoid lifting the spoon too much, as that will pull the pastry up. Use soft, gentle strokes, spreading out to the line you scored in the pastry. If you have made the ricotta cream in advance and kept it in the fridge, let it come up to room temperature a little before spreading it on – otherwise it will be too firm to spread over the delicate base.
- Arrange the green asparagus on top of the ricotta cream, alternating them so the tips point one way and then the other.
- Brush the green asparagus with a little oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and return the tart to the oven for a further 10-14 min., still at 200°C.