Written by Annalisa

* Pastry:
* 200g plain flour
* 25g polenta/cornmeal
* 125g butter, diced
* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon of olive oil
*

* Filling:
* 3 red, yellow or orange peppers (not green)
* 1tbsp of olive oil
* 15g fresh mint
* 250g halloumi cheese, drained and coarsely grated
* 3 large eggs
* 284ml single cream (I use semi skimmed milk and I tell you, it doesn’t make any difference!)
* freshly ground pepper

Halloumi is a salty cheese so I’m not sure how suitable this dish is for young children so that’s up to you to decide.

You need a flan tin of approx 9″.

Preheat the oven to 220/425/7, quarter the peppers (deseed them) and drizzle them with the one tbsp of olive oil and cook them on a high shelf for about 30 mins. Then remove from oven, put in a clean plastic bag and after fifteen minutes they’re ready to peel, then cut into thick slices. There’s nothing to stop you using a jar of ready roasted peppers, just make sure you drain well first.

If oven cooking and you intend to make the tart straight after (cos the peppers can be made in advance), turn the oven down to 190/375/5.

You can do the above whilst the pastry is resting. To make the pastry you rub the flour, polenta and butter together until it’s like breadcrumbs. You can do this in a food processor with the knife blade attachment. Then add the egg and the teaspoon of oil so that it comes all together. Flatten into a thick disk, cover and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins. Then what you’re meant to do is roll out the pastry and fit into the flan dish. But what I do is take bits of and just press it in bit by bit into the flan dish, it saves rolling stuff out etc.

Once the pasry is fitted into the tin then prick it all over with a fork and let it rest in the fridge again for an hour or overnight, cover with clingfilm/foil.

Then - are you still with me - you need to bake it blind which means putting a layer of tin foil in the flan and covering over with baking beans. If you don’t have them then, at this point, you’ll hate me. But you can improvise with a smaller tin. It’s basically to keep the pastry from rising too much so it stays short. Cook it like this for 30 mins, then take out of the oven, take away the baking beans and foil and cook for a further five mins. Then let it cool for about 10 mins.

Meanwhile make the filling. Grate the halloumi which can be a faff so do it in a processor if you can. Mix the eggs, cream, chopped mint, peppers, grated cheese and milk (or cream depending on how much of a piggie you feel) together and pour into the case. It’s an idea to put the flan dish thingy on a baking sheet so it’s easier to get in and out of the oven.

Don’t add salt at any point as the cheese is salty enough!

Cook for 30-35 mins until golden brown on the top. Let it cool for about 30 mins and then eat eat eat.

Although I can’t pretend this tart isn’t hard work you can do it in stages. Like I’ll make the pastry/do the peppers one day and then the rest another. It’s really nice cold, too or you can reheat.