I made the commitment to a 250g bag of shredded parmesan cheese. That meant that I had to carefully plan my meals for the next couple of weeks to incorporate as much parmesan as I could into everything so that I wouldn’t end up with a mouldy bag of cheese 2 months later at the back of my fridge.

Did a Google search and found a recipe for a tart crust that incorporated parmesan into it. Was very intrigued and decided to try it out.

What was I going to fill it with? Decided to just wing it. And it turned out absolutely delicious! Recipe is as follows.

Can you see the flecks of parmesan cheese in the crust?

Makes 10 inch tart

Ingredients

Crust

  • 300g plain flour
  • 125g cold butter, diced
  • 40g shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1-2 tbsp chilled water
Filling
  • 4 eggs
  • 5 white mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 small can of corn kernels
  • A small handful of ham pieces from the supermarket deli
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tbsp mixed herbs
  • Half a zucchini, sliced for garnishing
  • 50ml cream
  • Cracked pepper to taste
Method
  1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (160 if fan-forced).
  2. Combine crust ingredients sans chilled water in one of two ways – in the food processor in short bursts or if you don’t have a food processor by hand. Do it by rubbing the butter into the mixture. Once a dry crumbly mix is formed pour in the chilled water until it becomes the right doughy consistency.
  3. Put the dough into a 10′ tart pan and press it out with your fingers towards the edges as evenly as you can. Yes, you can also choose to roll the dough out and do it that way but I think this is the quickest way to get things done without being a perfectionist.
  4. Weigh down the pastry with baking beads and stick it in the oven for about half an hour or until the pastry is nice and crisp and golden.
  5. In the meantime, combine all the filling ingredients. Once pastry shell is ready, pour filling into shell. Arrange zucchini slices strategically on top of the filling and put back into the oven for another 30-45 minutes or until fully set.
  6. Unmould and enjoy!
I cut the tart up into 6 portions and they will serve as my lunch for the rest of the week.