Up to a day ahead:
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Melt the butter in a wide frying pan or saute pan over a medium-low heat and add the shallots, cut side down. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes until golden. Turn them over and add thyme, vinegar and sugar. Give the pan a shake to dissolve the sugar, cook and cover for another 10 minutes, until the shallots are cooked through. Leave to cool
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Divide the pastry into 6 pieces and roll out to rough circle or square shapes. Top with the cold shallots, then break over pieces of cheese and crimp the sides of the pastry to form a rim. Cover and chill
1 hour ahead:
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Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg, then bake for 25 minutes. Meanwhile toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes, taking care not to burn them, the set aside
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Scatter a few pine nuts over each tart. Serve with a salad of bitter leaves such as chicory or rocket
Taken from Do Ahead Dinners (£20; Pavilion)
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 6 banana or echelion shallots (the long ones), halved through the root and peeled
- salt and pepper
- 2tsp chopped fresh thyme
- 100ml sherry vinegar
- 50g caster sugar
- 375g puff pastry
- 200g Taleggio cheese
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- handful of pine nuts
Method
Top Tip
Try adding a few slices of griddled asparagus and half a boiled and peeled quail egg to each tart before serving
