Eating In with the Food & Home Entertaining Team: Jessica Oliver

Tomato and goat’s cheese tart

"I love Rachel Allen. I always watch her shows on TV – she’s so warm, bubbly and enthusiastic and makes such simple but tasty, beautiful dishes – so I was really excited to see we had been sent her new cookbook Easy Meals. I have a mild addiction to puff pastry (seriously, it’s bordering on being a problem) so I am always looking for new recipes to try and, when I stumbled across this tomato and goat’s cheese tart in her cookbook, I couldn’t wait to rustle it up at home. The puff pastry came out so gorgeously golden and crisp and made the dish look so professional! Plus our flat smelt simply amazing… we were bathed in a puff pastry heavenly haze.

The red onion adds great flavour to the tart and a lovely crunch against the smooth goat’s cheese and olive oil-soaked roasted tomatoes. Once out of the oven the tart is drizzled with basil pesto, which made it so colourful and you could smell the richness of the pesto throughout the kitchen. I added slices of chorizo to the tart before I cooked it – chorizo is my absolute favourite; it has such a strong, distinct flavour – as I wanted a little more protein and just something to up the attraction factor. It perfectly complemented the flavours and my flatmate and I gobbled down the entire tart in one sitting. That was after we layered it with slices of fresh avo for a cold, creamy kick and added a side of sweet chilli sauce! It was a meal to remember and is probably going to become our favourite comfort dish on a lazy Sunday. Quick, easy and totally scrumptious.

I can’t wait to try lots of different toppings for a puff pastry tart, perhaps add on some olives and parma ham next time for a Mediterranean twist. Or try a tart with mushrooms, goat’s cheese and caramelised onions? Or butternut, bacon, feta and garlic butter? The options are endless."

Recipe tried and tested by Jessica Oliver

Click here if you’d like to buy a copy of Easy Meals by Rachel Allen.