Nigel Slater’s Mushroom Tart

It’s Sunday night. The rain is falling…again. And, Murray has just lost to Federer in the Wimbledon finals. If you’re anything like me, these three slightly depressing things will make you turn to food, such as Nigel Slater’s wonderfully simple mushroom tart.

Taken from one of his first books The 30 Minute Cook, this recipe is the reason why you should always have puff pastry in the freezer, a pack of mushrooms on your shopping list, parsley growing in your garden, garlic in the cupboard and butter in a dish. Yes, just five ingredients result in delicious comfort food that makes sunday nights, rain and Murray’s loss a thing of the past.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 500g mushrooms (I would go for portobello or chestnut)
• 100g soften butter
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 4 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 350g defrosted puff pastry

Method

• Preheat the oven to 220°C
• Cut the mushrooms into bite sized chunks
• Mix the butter with the garlic
• Fry the mushrooms in a pan with half the garlic butter
• Stir in the parsley
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into a rectangle
• Place the pastry on a baking sheet
• Using a knife, score a smaller rectangle 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the pastry
• Fill the innermost rectangle with the mushroom mixture
• Place in the oven and bake for 15minutes
• Take out the oven and dot the remaining butter over the mushrooms and pastry rim
• Put back in the oven for 5-7minutes until the pastry is golden
• Serve straight from the oven with some salad (I went for rocket drizzled with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with parmesan)