Raspberry and Pistachio Tart

Everyone loved the raspberry and pistachio tart I made from Yotam Ottolenghi. The crust is flaky, slightly sweet and has a hint of lemon, while the filling is nutty and a little sticky, with little bursts of flavor from the raspberries. It’s wonderful with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ottolenghi makes good use of a full sized food processor for this recipe. It’s used to make both the pastry and the filling. The store bought stuff is very convenient but, if you have a block of time available, I encourage you to make the pastry. I’m limited to my little food processor, but I made do. After all, people were making pies and tarts long before kitchen appliances appeared. It has been awhile since I’ve made pastry from scratch and this was the first time I ever blind baked a crust. Blind baking involves covering the pastry with parchment paper and then weighing it down with dried beans or rice. I chose to use rice because I read you could reuse the rice in a pilaf, but you can’t reuse the beans.

The original recipe is sized for a “26 centimetre round fluted tart tin with 3-centimetre-high sides.” (That’s just over 10 inches round and an inch tall.) I decided to use small individual tart tins that were 4 inches round and 3/4 inch high. I had enough crust to make 4 and some extra filling which I put into ramekins and baked along side the tarts.

Let’s talk about making the pastry. I mixed mine by hand by measuring the flour, butter etc together in a bowl. Then, with clean hands, I pinched the flour and butter together until it formed coarse crumbs and started to hold its shape (this is how Rick makes his scones.) At that point, cold water is added a little at a time until the pastry can be formed into a ball. Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes or more. Before rolling it, allow the dough to rest on the counter for a few minutes. (Here’s why plus a few tips on rolling your dough without fear.) You’ll want to roll to dough to 1/16th of an inch, or 2mm, which seems very thin when you read the number, but it’s the thickness of a US nickel. After the dough has been transferred to the tart pan and formed into a crust it needs to go back into the fridge for another chilling period before blind baking.

The original recipe calls for raw shelled pistachios which I didn’t have. Since you have to roast the raw pistachios to make the filling, I was comfortable buying the kernels, but I suspect the color of the filling would have been greener had I been able to find the raw ones. A full sized food processor or high speed blender would have no trouble turning the nuts into a smooth paste. I had to be content with something that was paste like, if not as smooth as desired. No one complained about the texture.

One last note about the ingredients. The recipe calls for castor sugar which you can sometimes find sold as super fine sugar in the US. If it’s not available to you, don’t substitute powdered sugar. Instead, measure all the table sugar called for in the recipe into your food processor and give it a whirl to knock the crystals into smaller ones. I’ve converted the measurements to US standards. If you’re more comfortable with metric, visit Australia’s Good Food website where I found the recipe.

Raspberry and Pistachio Tart

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Prep Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Author: LydiaF

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon castor extra fine sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest finely grated
• 5 1/2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
• 1/4 teaspoon white wine vinegar I used white balsamic
• 1 - 2 tablespoons ice water you might not need it all

For the filling

• 1 3/4 cups shelled pistachios for the paste
• 3/4 cup shelled pistachios roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter melted
• juice and zest of a large lemon 1 teaspoon zest plus 3 teaspoons juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• pinch salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup castor extra fine sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 6 ounce pack of fresh raspberries

Instructions

Make the crust

• Measure the flour, sugar, salt, lemon and butter into a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mix resembles crumbs. Add the vinegar and a teaspoon of water at time until the dough comes together and can be formed into a ball. (Alternately, measure the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until it looks like crumbs. Add the vinegar and water, a little at a time, until it comes together and forms a ball.) Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
• Allow the dough to rest on the counter for 5 - 10 minutes. Flour the rolling surface and roll the dough about 1/16" (2mm) thick and the shape and size of your tart pan.
• Transfer the dough to the pan, pressing it into the corners and up the sides. Trim any excess dough. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Heat the oven to 390F/200C and prepare the tart for blind baking by lining the dough with a piece of parchment paper and filling the tart with dried beans or rice.
• Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown around the edges. (My small tarts took about the same amount of time.) Remove the rice and paper and continue to bake for another 8 minutes or so until the base is also golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
• Lower the oven temperature to 335F/170C.

Make the filling

• Blitz 1 3/4 cup shelled pistachios in a food processor until you get a smooth paste. This will take 5 - 10 minutes depending on the power of your machine. Scrape the sides as necessary. Add the melted butter, lemons zest, juice, vanilla, almond extract and salt and pulse a few times until combined.
• Roughly chop the remaining 3/4 cup of pistachio kernels.
• Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and mix at high speed for four minutes. The eggs will lighten in color and thicken slightly. Add the sugar a little at a time until well mixed.
• Add the flour, pistachio paste and chopped pistachios to the bowl and mix at low speed until well combined. You'll want to scrape the bowl on occasion.
• Transfer the filling to the tart shells and spread to the edges. Distribute the raspberries over the filling.
• Bake for 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the filling is set. (It took my small tarts closer to 45 minutes to set)
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tart pan. When cool, you can take the tart out of the pan to slice and serve.

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I will be sharing this post with the bloggers of I Heart Cooking Clubs where it’s Potluck Week!