Olive & almond tart

Ingredients 3 eggs, 150g   ground almonds, 100g kamalata olives, 250g plain flour, 1 tsp salt  250g butter.

Serves: 6 Preparation: 1 hour and a half


The sweet nuttiness of almonds and the savoury strength of the olives make a beautiful combination in these lovely tarts.


1) To make the pastry - Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and mix in about 100ml cold water until you have a firm rough dough. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to chill.


2) Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it's no more than 1cm thick. Cut out circles of dough and roll out into thinner pastry about half a centimetre thick and blind bake for 10-12 minutes.


3) Break 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk into a mixing bowl and beat together. Fold in the ground almonds and season with salt and pepper.


4) Pit the olives and pulse in the blender and fold in to the egg and almond mix.


5) Spoon the mixture into the pastry cases and level out. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees until golden brown.


This is perfect served with halved olives and my lemon thyme & goats cheese mousse.