There are two edible spring plants I adore: leeks and rhubarbs. However, they aren’t really that popular for some reason. It’s is one of the facts of life I find utterly incomprehensible. Nevertheless, I use them as much as possible as soon as they’re in season! The rhubarb strawberry tarte is one of the recipes in rotation during spring. Originally it’s supposed to be prepared in a rectangular tin. I don’t have one so I use my round tarte baking tin. An unintended but hilarious result consequence of this is that the tarte looks like a pizza. It isn’t but it is a very delicious spring dessert! Following below is a fairly easy recipe. The only slightly tricky parts are blind-baking the shortcrust and caramelizing the sugar for the compote.

Rhubarb Strawberry Tarte

Serving Size:

8 pieces

Time:

60min

Difficulty:

Easy

Ingredients for the Shortcrust

• 125g flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 75g cold butter
• 30g icing sugar
• 1 egg

Ingredients for the filling

• 4 basil stems
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 tbsp. icing sugar

Ingredients for the topping

• 250g rhubarb
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. starch flour
• 250g strawberries
• 2 tbsps. sliced pistachios (or almonds)
• 2 tbsps. basil leaves

Additional ingredients

• dried peas/beans for blind-baking

Directions for the shortcrust

1. Begin by mixing flour and salt for the shortcrust. Dice the butter, add it to the dough and crumble between your fingers. Add icing sugar, 1 tsp. of water and the egg. Quickly need the dough and put it in the refrigerator for 30mins.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter/oil the baking tin. Spread the dough into a thin sheet and put it in the baking tin. As shown above, put baking paper on top of it, then add the dried peas/beans. Then blind-bake the shortcrust for 15-20mins. Afterwards remove the peas/beans and the baking paper and let the tarte cool down.