We don’t often cook with our Gorgonzola Dolce is it is just so delicious to eat as it comes, preferably with a spoon and perhaps some flatbreads!
However, I recently bought Skye McAlpine’s latest book A Table Full of Love and was keen to try this recipe. As some of you know, I’m a big fan of her beautiful recipe books. I particularly like how they can include quick, shortcuts like the pastry, yet retain great elegance and authenticity. Skye has spent much of her life living in Venice and so there is a clear Italian thread running through all of her recipe collections.
This book really focuses on cooking and dining as an act of love, from friendship, heartbreak, romance, family, self-love to gifting and the recipes are organised accordingly in chapters entitled comfort, seduce, nourish, spoil and cocoon.
''the emphasis here is on why we cook as much as it is on how to do it.''
I wholly recommend for this recipe and many more delights, I can’t wait to try the Baked Fennel and Burrata Gratin, Polpette alla Ricotta, Baked Ricotta al Limone and Mimosa Truffles next!
This recipe is an adaptation of Skye’s and serves 2-4. It is incredibly simple and quick to make, I put it together shortly after the school run alongside a simple Pastina soup starter. Allow about 35 minutes in all.
Ingredients:
1 pack of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
300g cooked beetroot sliced into rounds (3-5mm thick)
150g Gorgonzola cheese
handful of walnut pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
22.5 cm approx tart tin
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4.
Cut the pastry to shape and place in the tin, pushing it into the edges.
Blind-bake for 20 minutes. then a further 5 minutes with baking paper and beans removed, until the base feels dry to the touch.
Arrange the beetroot slices inside in a single, slightly overlapping layer.
Crumble (or spoon!) over the Gorgonzola and walnuts.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper.
Bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the edges of the tart are golden.
Served warm or at room temperature is perfect but it also can be enjoyed cold the next day.
