Roquefort and walnut tart with crispy pear

Virginia, author of the food blog Sweet&Sour , invites us to prepare a delicious shortcrust pastry cake with a combination that you will love: Roquefort cheese, walnuts and pears. The preparation is simple and the results exquisite. You can't miss it!

We are already looking forward to spring and the longer, warmer days start to allow for a bit more casual dining. So this salty tart is a good example. It is one of those recipes that, as I say, works the same for "a torn or a torn one", because you can use it as a single dish for an informal dinner, accompanied by a simple salad, or as a first course in a lunch more commitment.

In any case, it is easy to make and you can have it prepared a little in advance, because you can enjoy it at room temperature.

Pallarès carbon steel knife and Le Creuset mini-cocotte

You already know the shortcrust pastry is simple and the touch of walnuts accompanies the filling very well. The filling is soft and creamy, with the most intense point given by the Roquefort cheese, but despite its intensity it is attenuated and does not cover the flavor of the rest of the ingredients. The blue cheese combines perfectly with the walnut shortcrust pastry and the crunchy pear topping. Come on, as I say, it makes you look like a queen.

You can replace the roquefort cheese with another that you like more, such as gorgonzola, stilton, or cabrales, but that has personality, because since the filling is so creamy, its intensity will be attenuated.

I have prepared it with the buyer's rectangular mold with removable base , for my taste it is ideal for this type of presentation, since it departs from the classic round presentation and since it is non-stick and with a removable base it allows you to transfer it directly to the table without risk of spoiling the preparation.

Let's go with the recipe for this pear and Roquefort cheese tart !

INGREDIENTS (For a 36x10cm rectangular mold)

For the walnut shortcrust pastry:

• 210g all purpose flour
• 40g of ground walnuts
• 125g very cold butter, cut into squares
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons of ice water
• 1 beaten egg to waterproof the dough when cooking it white.

For the filling:

• 225gr of creamy Philadelphia type cheese
• 150g of liquid cream 35% mg
• 3 eggs ¨L" at room temperature
• 175g of roquefort cheese*
• 40gr coarsely chopped shelled walnuts
• freshly ground black pepper
• Fleur de Sel Le Paludier (in moderation)
• fresh thyme leaves

For the Crunchy Pear Slices and Fried Nuts Topping:

• 4-6 very thin slices of conference pear
• Sugar
• 6 walnuts
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Walnut Oil "La Tourangelle"

PREPARATION

We prepare the shortcrust pastry of Nut:

You can do it with the manual method, or with a Kitchen Aid type glass blender .
If we do it with the manual technique, we put the flour, the walnut flour and the salt on the table and mix, we add the very cold butter cut into small pieces and mix with the tips of our fingers so as not to overheat the dough. Make a hole in the center, as if it were a crater, and pour in the slightly beaten egg yolk. Mix with the tips of your fingers without overworking the dough. If necessary, add the water, first a tablespoon and then, if the dough still does not stick together in one ball, the other. Each flour is unique and does not absorb the same amount of water as another, nor are the eggs all the same size.

If we do it with a kitchen robot or a Kitchen Aid-type blender, we put all the ingredients in the glass, except for the tablespoons of water, and in the same order that they appear. Press for a few seconds at intervals until we have a kind of crumbs. We correct the texture with the remaining water, since it must be just moist enough for it to stick together. If it has been very dry and the crumbs do not unite, add the water, tablespoon by tablespoon and mix.

Roll out the dough into a thick sheet, wrap in film and chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge. We can keep it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

At the moment we are going to prepare the cake, we prepare our rectangular mold with De Buyer removable base , lining the base of the mold with baking paper, and we spray the mold with Brikman non-stick release spray . The mold is non-stick, but I like to do it as a precaution.

Stretch the dough between two sheets of cling film or baking paper with a thickness of 0.6 mm. I have used the Joseph Joseph adjustable rolling pin , because it allows me to easily give the same thickness to all the dough, and that it cooks evenly.

We take the mold and adjust the dough inside, pressing slightly, but without stretching the dough, so that it does not shrink later when cooking. Prick the base gently with a fork and place well covered in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC heat up and down.

We are going to cook this dough blank, which means that we will cook it previously without the filling. To do this, we remove the mold with the dough from the freezer and cover it with baking paper. We add some dried legumes or, which is very practical and is specially designed for this, some ceramic baking balls -which prevent you from throwing away the legumes every time!-, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Joseph Joseph adjustable rolling pin , De Buyer non-stick pan and ceramic balls for baking

Remove from the oven and remove the paper and weights. Return to the oven and cook for another 5-7 minutes, until the base has completely dried.
Now we waterproof the dough base, so that the creamy filling does not moisten it and lose its puff pastry quality. As? Remove and paint the base with beaten egg and bake another 7 minutes, until we see it shiny. Let cool before adding the filling.

Let's go with the filling:

In a bowl, pour the Philadelphia cheese and beat it until it softens, add the cream and mix well. Then the eggs one by one until they are well incorporated; We crumble the Roquefort cheese and add it to this preparation.

Mix well with a silicone spoon spatula , so that it does not break excessively and we can find pieces of cheese in the bites of the cake. Next we incorporate the chopped walnuts. Finally, season with salt and pepper carefully, as the cheese is already quite salty, and add the fresh thyme leaves. Pour this mixture over the previously cooked white dough.

Le Creuset mini-cocotte , De Buyer non-stick pan and De Buyer rectangular pan with removable base

Transfer to a buyer's non-stick tray , bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until lightly browned and beginning to swell.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack . When it's cold, remove it carefully. Although I advise you to use the base of the mold to transport it to the source or table where we are going to serve it, without breaking it.

To prepare the crispy pear slices:

It's simple, we just have to cut them very thin, almost transparent, for which I advise you to use a mandolin . I have the De Buyer swing mandolin and it's fantastic. Cover the pear slices with a little sugar and place them on baking paper, on the same buyer's non-stick tray. Bake at the same time as the cake, or until golden and crisp.

Just before serving our cake, we put a frying pan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and fry some walnut halves until they are almost black. Do not be afraid, do not bitter.

We serve the tart with the crunchy pear slices on it, and a fried nut. We water the whole with a drizzle of "La Tourangelle" Walnut Oil and accompany it with a green rocket salad.

This cake is delicious at room temperature, better than cold, but if you have a bit left over, keep it in the fridge and then, when it's time to serve, pop it in the oven.

Tips:

- If you have the Kitchen Aid, the first part of the filling, until the incorporation of the Roquefort cheese, you can do it with it, provided with the shovel accessory. The process is very fast and the results are very homogeneous.

To enjoy.
Virginia