Recipe: Pink chard and vegetable tart

Tarte à la bette à cardes roses et aux légumes (pink chard and vegetable tart)

We bring you a stunning summer recipe from Nina Parker, author of Nina St Tropez – her new cookbook, offering a sun-drenched selection of Mediterranean delights.

Of this recipe, Nina says: “I’m constantly thinking up new ways to enjoy aubergines and tomatoes together, and on one outing to the market at La Garde-Freinet I stumbled upon some gorgeous fuchsia-pink chard. The bitterness of the chard and radicchio rosso perfectly complements the sweet tomatoes.”

Serves 4

1 aubergine, sliced into 1cm discs
150g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp olive oil
pinch sugar
5-6 leaves pink chard (or use ordinary chard)
1 small radicchio rosso (or use red endive or chicory), leaves separated
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
250g fresh or frozen puff pastry (thawed if frozen)
flour, for dusting
1 free-range medium egg yolk, lightly beaten
fresh basil leaves, to serve
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt and black pepper

Method

✽ Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4 and grease and line a 25cm tart dish with non-stick baking paper. Place the aubergine slices on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt.

✽ After 10 minutes, pat the aubergine
 slices dry with kitchen paper. Season
 with pepper, drizzle with 1 tablespoon
 olive oil and place on one side of a large baking sheet. Season the tomatoes with 
salt, pepper and sugar and arrange them cut-side up on the other side of the sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes, until tender, turning the aubergine slices halfway through. The tomatoes may take a little longer – you want them to be shrivelled
 up at the edges.

✽ Meanwhile, slice the chard stalks and roughly chop the radicchio leaves, setting a few whole leaves and sliced stalks aside for garnishing. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add
the chopped leaves and sliced stalks and cook for 7 minutes or until wilted by about half. Add the garlic and balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper, cook for 2 
more minutes, then remove from the heat.

✽ Increase the oven temperature to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6. Roll out the
 pastry on a lightly floured work surface 
to fit the tart dish and brush it with the beaten yolk. Bake for about 13 minutes, until golden and puffed up. Spoon over
the chard-radicchio mixture, arrange the roasted aubergine and tomatoes on top, tumble over the reserved radicchio leaves and pink chard stalks, and scatter over a 
few basil leaves. Finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and serve immediately.

Nina St Tropez by Nina Parker is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, RRP £20 (hardback) / £10.99 (eBook). Further information: www.ninafood.com

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