Food for Thought with Suzanne Dunaway

Spinach Tatin

If you happen to be in a little village in the P-O where a brilliant woman has created a communal garden over the last five years that soothes the soul, provides food for so many, and in its weekly visits from schools, teaches children the beauty of organic gardening and how it enhances the tastes of just about everything, then you might be lucky enough to be given some lovely small-leaved spinach or blette with which to make this tart.

And of course there are open markets in every city and town that will provide the same vitamin-filled greens for this tart. I use only butter puff pastry, but of course you may make your own favorite, maison. A nice salad, some bread from one of our myriad bakeries and dinner is solved.

food for thought



Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 round of puff pastry, the kind made with beurre
  • 1 kilo of spinach or blette, steamed in a little salted water until limp and drained well
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 sweet onions, sliced thin
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 3 eggs beaten well
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup grated tomme or any fairly substantial cheese you like to cook with –Pyrenees, gruyere, cheddar, brebis, young manchego, so many to choose from!

Method

Heat the oven to 225C/420F.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the the well-drained greens with a little nutmeg until smooth but not puréed.

Add the lemon juice and set aside.

In an oven proof skillet on top of the stove, heat the olive oil and lay the slices of onion evenly over the bottom.

Add the chopped garlic and cook for about 10 minutes until the edges of the onions begin to caramelize.

Mix the spinach with the grated cheese and beaten eggs and spread the mixture over the onions..

Continue cooking and when the juice around the edges of the pan are dark, thick and syrupy, turn off the heat, quickly lay the round of puff pastry over the mixture and press down around the edges.

Bake for 25 minutes or just until the pastry is a nice rich brown, almost too brown but very golden and crisp.

Turn off the oven, open the door and have a drink with your honey until dinnertime.

To invert, warm the bottom of the pan very slightly until the whole shebang moves well in the pan. Place a large serving plate over the tarte and invert.

The tart will be nice and warm even after a little apero in front of a fire.

Serve in wedges with absolutely nothing but a green salad and a good red wine.

food for thought

Meet the chef

P-O Life reader, Suzanne Dunaway, has cooked since she was 5 years old, when she made cinnamon pinwheels from her mother’s pastry dough.

She LOVES to cook. Some might say she LIVES to cook. The smells, the tastes, the textures…

She is a firm believer in simplicity and creates her recipes in the ethos of ‘anyone can cook’.

After years of experience in her own kitchen, cooking schools and private classes all over the world, in this weekly blog, Suzanne shares with us her PO-inspired creations.

With many strings to her bow, she is also an artist and columnist, with two published cookbooks.

Get a copy of her ‘No Need to Knead: Handmade Artisan Breads in 90 Minutes’ here  

Or her 5 star rated book ‘Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen’ here

All content and recipes are copyright of Suzanne Dunaway.



Comments


  1. When I read Suzanne‘s recipes and blogs, I feel like I am in the kitchen with her having a conversation. She is truly an energy source unparalleled. And her blogs and recipes are a joy to read, to follow and to taste.

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