Open Savoury Tart With Pumpkin, Sage and Cottage Cheese

From Every Day Kitchen by Natalie Oldfield
Photography by Todd Eyre

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

Pastry

• 2 cups standard flour
• 100g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 30 – 40ml cold water

Filling

• 400g pumpkin, diced and roasted
• 500g cottage cheese
• 15 – 20 sage leaves
• 1½ cups grated parmesan
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp milk

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick paper.

Place flour in a bowl, add butter and rub until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add egg yolks and water and mix to a stiff dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place pumpkin, cottage cheese, sage leaves and 1 cup of grated parmesan in a bowl and very gently fold together. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to form a large circle 3mm thick and transfer to baking tray.

Place pumpkin filling on pastry leaving a 3 cm edge. Fold edge over top of pumpkin mixture. Brush pastry with milk. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan and bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Stephen Morris’s wine recommendations

Autumn is in the air, and pumpkin, sage and pastry reinforce that for me. Chardonnay is where I head. Something with weight and savoury depth. Don’t chill these wines too much, just 30 minutes in the fridge is probably enough.

Delegat Reserve Hawkes Bay 2010 chardonnay – good butterscotch richness on the nose. Some toffee pudding weight even. They’ve used 45% new oak which shows up as a good firmness in the mouth. Good length on the palate.

Church Road have released a new range, between the entry level standards and the reserves; the McDonald series. The 2011 chardonnay has just 20% new oak so it is firmly framed but not woody. Lots of ripe peaches and with wild ferment weight and complexity. There is some butter and some toffee in the mouth too. Very good, warming chardonnay.