Sun-dried Tomato and Roasted Vegetable Tart: Recipe

Since going vegetarian, I've been trying out lots of new and exciting meal ideas and this sun-dried tomato and roasted vegetable tart is an absolute winner. This has quickly become one of my favourite dishes over the last few months as it's packed with flavour from the sun-dried tomato base and all the beautifully roasted vegetables. I like to serve this with sweet potato wedges and lots of leafy green salad but it also tastes great cold and makes an amazing lunch if there's any leftovers for the following day.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 3 peppers (red, yellow and orange work best)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 145g sun-dried tomatoes (drained weight)
• 1-2 cloves garlic (crushed) - adjust this if you don't like a strong garlic flavour
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 sheet pre-rolled puff pastry
• Half a medium courgette
• 150g mozzarella, thinly sliced
• Mixed herbs
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 50g spinach
• 10g butter 

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Slice the peppers in half lengthways and remove the stalks and seeds, then cut into smaller pieces and place into a roasting tin and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Pop into the pre-heated oven and roast for 30 minutes until tender.
• Whilst the peppers are roasting, remove the pastry sheet from the fridge and allow it to reach room temperature - this will prevent it cracking when it is unrolled. 
• Once the sheet of pastry has reached room temperature, unroll it and place it onto a baking tray leaving it on the sheet of baking parchment provided (or if your pastry doesn't come on baking parchment, simply line your baking tray beforehand with either foil or baking paper).
• Next, add the drained sun-dried tomatoes and the crushed garlic to a food processor and blend into a paste. Add the oregano and season generously with black pepper, then pulse several times to combine.
• Spread the sun-dried tomato paste into an even layer across the sheet of pastry using a spatula. Make sure to leave a 2cm border around the edge as this will form the crust of the tart when the pastry rises in the oven.
• Slice the courgette into ribbons using a vegetable peeler, then, heat a griddle pan over a medium heat and brush lightly with oil. Griddle the courgette ribbons for a minute on each side until brown char lines appear.
• Scatter the griddled courgette ribbons and the roasted pepper pieces across the pastry base, then add the mozzarella slices. Season the tart lightly with sea salt and black pepper, as well as a sprinkling of mixed herbs. 
• Using a beaten egg, brush the edges of the pastry - this will act as a glaze and will make the pastry go a beautiful golden colour in the oven. Then, pop the tart in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
• Whilst the tart is cooking, rinse the spinach, then drain and add it to a frying pan over a medium heat along with the butter, stirring frequently until the butter has melted and the spinach has started to wilt. Remove from the heat and transfer the spinach into a sieve to allow any excess moisture to drain before it is added to the tart.
• After the tart has been cooking for 20 minutes, remove it from the oven and add the wilted spinach, then pop back into the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes (or until the pastry is golden).
• Cut into 6 pieces and serve.