Olive Tart

This recipe originally came from a book aptly titled ‘Tarts’ by Gourmet Traveller. I have used the same recipe for the base, however I have changed the filling recipe quite a bit. The original recipe calls for chicory, which was unavailable at my local IGA supermarket, so I substituted for silverbeet. I’ve also swapped out the eggs and crème fraiche for plain old flour and water, as I was cooking this for my mother who is vegan. As well as this, I used far less silverbeet and onion than the recipe called for, which seemed to be the perfect amount. Despite all the modifications it turned out to be a wonderful and easy to make dinner.

Olive Tart
2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch of silverbeet
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
fresh thyme
110g riviera olives (I used kalamata it worked just as well), halved and pitted

Dough
Place flour and 1tsp sea salt in a bowl, add 100ml of the olive oil combined with 150ml lukewarm water and stir until mixture forms a sticky dough. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and no longer sticky, then wrap in plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes.

Filling
- Coarsely chop the silverbeet (we’re looking for around 4 cups, loosely packed.)
- Heat remaining olive oil in a frying pan, add onion and a pinch of sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 20 minutes or until very soft. Add silverbeet, garlic and about 1tsp of thyme leaves and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
-To this bowl add some water and flour. Stir through the silverbeet mixture. You don’t need much. Then season to taste with sea salt and ground black pepper.

Assembly
- Put some baking paper onto a pizza/regular oven tray. Press the dough out to a 30cm round. Fold the edge of the pastry in about 1cm to form a raised border.
- Pour the silverbeet mixture onto the tart base. Cover with olives and some thyme sprigs.
- Bake at 230°C for around 25 minutes.