Red onion, bacon, pepper and mozzarella tart
This looks absolutely stunning when it’s assembled and ready to go in the oven. The red onions have had the most part of an hour to slowly cook in butter in a wide frying pan on the lowest possible heat, with a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sugar stirred in just at the end. I added a thinly sliced yellow pepper to the onions to soften gently while I rolled out the pastry, shredded the mozzarella and chopped the bacon.
The red onion and yellow pepper form the first layer of the tart, topped with the raw bacon and the torn mozzarella and a generous helping of cracked black pepper. I left a border of about an inch, which I brushed with beaten egg before putting the tart in the oven.
I’ve learned to beat eggs in a small tupperware container – not quite as large as the smallest pot of single cream you can buy. I brush what I need to onto the pastry for a glaze and pop the rest in the fridge to be recycled in egg fried rice or welsh rarebit in the next day or two. I feel like a very frugal cook as a result!
The end result for this was really rather lovely. It was quite light, so I think when we get into the warmer months I’ll be planning to prepare a few variations on this theme (with chicken and spinach, with a range of peppers, with feta, with a really strong cheddar – delicious!). H went back for seconds, which is the greatest endorsement of a new meal.
We served this with a simple salad of rocket, watercress and spinach in a lemon and olive oil dressing – a regular that is now effectively the house style.
