What a day! What a hot, what a rainy, what a windy day as we, people in İstanbul had in the weekend. This is an interesting place promising you lots of different experiences even the daily weather is concerned.
We went out to the seaside for running in the morning time wearing our 30 SPF sunscreen lotion, shorts and sunglasses and guess what happened? Right after we completed the running track under the harsh sunlight with sweat on our temples, sky turned gray and wind started to blow in less than three minutes time and we got soaked like we were just out of the shower with our sporting apparels. Thanks god our sunscreen lotion was waterproof!
As soon as we got home, we had our traditional weekend breakfast with all the delicacies, different cheeses, an omelette scrambled with milk, goat cheese and fresh ground pepper, homemade jams and a biscotti style homemade bread (I deliberately used the phrase “biscotti style” since the intention was not to make a biscotti at all but we cooked the previous days’ homemade bread again in the oven just to make it crusty and hot. By the way the word “biscotti” is quite meaningful when you consider the word “bis” which in Italian means twice and “cotto” meaning cooked.)
After passing some time by chit chatting, reading newspapers and magazines (for sure about food), it was time for the kitchen of Oz to start operation. I would like to come up with a delicious recipe and also something I could use the fresh spinach leaves I bought from the open market the day before so that they won’t fade away and lose their taste. I had also a package of ricotta cheese I bought before; looking at me aimlessly each and every time I open the refrigerator’s door. After getting lost in my hand written recipe notebook, I decided to make a tart with the ingredients in hand. It is quite simple and clear to prepare however requires a little bit of manual skills to spread the dough with equal thickness everywhere. If not the first time, you’ll master it on your second trial but I assure you the taste will make you pass over all imperfections in terms of form.
Tart with spinach, mushroom, and ricotta filling
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 100 g. butter
- 2 eggs
- 265 g. all purpose white flour (whole wheat flour can also be used, 245 g will be enough in this case)
- 1/3 teaspoon ground sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
For the filling:
- 850 g. Spinach (chard is also welcome)
- 300 g. white mushroom
- 400 g. ricotta cheese
- 5-6 branch of scallion
- Ground sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
| 1. | Add flour, eggs and butter in a large mixing bowl and start kneading it with your hand (you can use a stand mixer for that purpose too). |
| 2. | Sprinkle the salt and thyme while kneading the dough. |
| 3. | When the dough comes together and forms a ball without sticking to the sides of the bowl transfer it on a floured surface. |
| 4. | Spread the dough with a roller until you reach a circle with enough size to cover a 9-inch (around 23 cm) tart mold with a removable bottom. |
| 5. | If you like you can cut out the outermost excess parts of the dough coming out of the tart mold with a knife and keep it at a side to make a cage like cover on the tart. |
| 6. | Prick all over the dough with a toothpick or with the tines of a fork. |
| 7. | Cover the dough with a piece of aluminum foil and cover the foil with a bunch of white beans so that the tart dough will not rise unevenly. (you cannot eat those beans afterwards so it is recommended to keep them in a jar to use them for that purpose anytime) |
| 8. | Bake the tart shell in the oven at 160 C (320 F) for almost 20-25 minutes or until the dough has a golden color. |
| 9. | Remove the tart shell from the oven and keep it aside to cool down. |
| 10. | Saute the roughly cut spinach leaves and chopped mushrooms in a pan with some butter. |
| 11. | Add the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and let it cool down. |
| 12. | When the spinach and mushroom mixture comes to room temperature add two eggs, finely chopped scallions and the ricotta cheese and stir them. |
| 13. | Fill the tart shell with the mixture prepared. |
| 14. | If you prefer (as I did) to make a cover on top of the tart, spread the left over dough with a roller and cut stripes by the help of a knife. |
| 15. | Cover the surface of the tart with the stripe shaped dough pieces you cut and fix the end of each stripe gently by your fingers. |
| 16. | Bake the whole tart at 160 C (320 F) for an additional 30 minutes. |
#1 by Gamze - August 12th, 2009 at 08:55
It really looks delicious! I just want to grab a bite even though I already had my breakfast…
Congrats for your first post, btw…
#2 by Dogan - August 12th, 2009 at 11:26
Nice to see you both blogging. The site looks nice and green. Good luck…
#3 by Ozhan - August 12th, 2009 at 18:57
Thanks a lot! Hope I can update it frequently
#4 by mete - August 14th, 2009 at 14:27
Well done wizard. I believe you can make everything delicious with a simple touch…
#5 by ebru - December 13th, 2009 at 12:25
cok lezzetli bir blog hazirlamissiniz, elinize saglik..
#6 by Ozhan - December 13th, 2009 at 17:42
Cok tesekkurler Ebru, umarim tarifleri deneme firsatin da olur. Lezzetlerinin de fotograflari kadar guzel olmasi icin bir cok kez test ettikten sonra en begendigim versiyonunu yayinliyorum blogda. Afiyet olsun:)
#7 by Johnb212 - September 6th, 2014 at 22:21
Im not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. Cheers aegecdbggkbd