Spring tarts with watercress salsa verde & whipped lemon feta
Transform a sheet of shop-bought pastry into this stunning tart, piled with beautiful spring vegetables including radishes, baby carrots, peas and asparagus
Chicory, sausage & black olive polenta tart
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook:
- Easy
- Serves 4-6
Skip to ingredients
- 1 orangezested and juiced
- 2 tsp honey
- 2-3 heads of red chicoryhalved
- olive oilor rapeseed oil
- 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
- 200g quick-cook polenta
- 200g taleggio cheesethinly sliced and broken into smaller pieces
- 4 good-quality Italian sausages
- handful of black olivespitted and halved or squashed
- good pinch of chilli flakes
Nutrition: Per serving (4)
- kcal432
- fat33g
- saturates15g
- carbs14g
- sugars5g
- fibre2g
- protein19g
- salt3.8g
Method
step 1
Put the orange juice and honey in a large frying pan and bubble until reduced to a sticky glaze. Add the chicory and cook for 2 mins, turning once in the glaze until it just starts to soften, then leave in the pan to cool. Once cooled, cut each piece of chicory in half again. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and boil the kettle. Line a large baking sheet with parchment and oil it lightly.
step 2
Crumble the stock cube into a large pan and add 1 litre hot water from the kettle. Bring the water back to the boil, then quickly pour in the polenta and cook for 5 mins, whisking the whole time. It will be really thick once cooked. Tip the polenta onto the baking sheet and spread out to make the tart base – it should be about 2-3cm thick.
step 3
Top with the cheese, arrange the chicory pieces on top in a fan, then crumble small chunks of sausage around them, discarding the skins. Add the olives, chilli, orange zest, a good drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning. Bake for 20 mins, then turn the grill on for a final few mins until the sausages are browned and the polenta is starting to crisp. Leave to stand for a few mins, then serve warm.
