The premise behind Ella Risbridger’s new cookbook The Kitchen Book – Good Food for Everyday – is simple: it’s a list of things she loves. “Mainly it is a list of things I love to eat, and things I think you will also love to eat,” she writes in the book’s introduction. But really, it’s multiple lists: a list of what you’ll find in her cupboards and her fridge (good butter, miso, kimchi), her spice drawer and her freezer (stock, Martinis), and – crucially – lists of recipes.
One list is a collection of recipes for eating on the sofa – no-knife potato and prawn curry and tomato pasta – and another is a bunch of recipes designed for gatherings, from baby birthdays to “grown-up house parties”. Like in all Risbridger’s books – including her smash-hit Midnight Chicken, about the food she cooked in her small flat and the joy it brought her during a period of grief and mental health struggles – its recipes are approachable and her writing vivid and friendly.
This vivacious tomato tart is in a list devoted to recipes for a “last days of summer party” – fitting as we roll towards September.
“I truly do get so sad about cooking tomatoes in summer,” Risbridger writes. “This is one for the blazing days that start out slow and misty: bake the pastry early until crisp, then in the heat of the day spread with whipped and herby yoghurt, spoon over a truly beautiful, bright, ripe-tomato-salty-olive combo, and strew liberally with tarragon and basil.”
The tarragon gives the tart a kick that’s “a little aniseed-y, a little fennel-adjacent, but gentler than both: maybe even a little sweet,” Risbridger writes. As for basil? “I have to resist buying it in big bunches to have around the house like flowers: I love the sweetness and strength of it; I love how it perfumes everything from a single bruise.”
You can either buy the pastry (get the best puff you can find), or you can make it. “If made, listen: it's a little faff. I won't lie! It needs chilling and re-chilling! But I think it's entirely worth it: this olive oil crust is so flaky, so tender, and, if you swap the egg for soy milk, vegan. And it makes the perfect backdrop for the tomatoes. Just do it once, and tell me I’m wrong.”
This is best served with a green salad on the side.
Ella Risbridger’s tarragon and tomato olive oil tart
Serves 6
Preparation time 50 mins, plus freezing and cooling pastry
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
Pastry
60g really nice olive oil
160g plain flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 egg
1sheet best puff pastry (if not making from scratch)
Yoghurt
1 garlic clove
10g chives
400g goat’s yoghurt (or plain Greek yoghurt)
Zest of 1 lemon (save the juice, squeeze over green salad to serve alongside) 2 tsp salt
2 tbsp really good olive oil
Topping
200g tomatoes
2 tbsp really nice olive oil
100g kalamata olives (to blitz)
, plus 50g kalamata olives (keep whole) 2 tbsp olive brine from the jar
2 big garlic cloves
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
20g tarragon
20g basil
Method
Start with the pastry, if making it yourself. At least an hour before you want to start, put the oil and 50ml water in the fridge.
Stir together the oil, flour, salt and vinegar. Slowly add the ice-cold water to make a supple and not-too-sticky pastry. Shape into a block and roll out to about the thickness of a pound coin: I do this between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Lift onto a baking sheet and freeze flat.
If you’re using store-bought pastry, follow the instructions on the packaging.
Brush the frozen pastry with beaten egg, and – once frozen, and ready to prepare the tart – bake at 180°C for 20 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.
While the pastry is chilling, make the strained yoghurt. Crush the garlic, finely chop the chives and mix through the yoghurt, along with the lemon zest and salt. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. If you have it, line the sieve with muslin. If not, it’s okay! Either way, spoon the yoghurt into the sieve, and let strain for as long as possible. Ripple through the olive il just before serving – don’t stir it in completely.
Also while the pastry is chilling, blitz together the tomatoes, olive oil, olive brine, olives, garlic and red wine vinegar to make a chunky and delicious sauce.
De-stem and lightly tear soft herbs, tear the reserved olives into pieces.
Assemble the tart, on baking sheet: spread soft dollops of olive-oil rippled goat’s yoghurt across the pastry. Tomato topping.
Herbs everywhere. Olives everywhere.
Serve with green salad, dressed only with the leftover juice of the lemon. Maybe – maybe – a little more olive oil.
The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger is published by 4th Estate, £26.
