Savoury ‘sunflower’ tart

When family or friends are with you to celebrate an anniversary or another significant event, it’s worthwhile trying to create dishes that are not only lovely to eat, but beautiful to look at. This recipe is just such an aesthetic delight, as well as being very satisfying to the palate. It’s a wonderful savoury tart made with a delicious shortcrust pastry and a tasty filling made with ricotta and spinach, to which we have given the striking shape of a sunflower. All you have to do is slightly turn its petals and sprinkle the centre with some fragrant and attractive poppy seeds to get the desired effect. And then, petal by petal, the sunflower tart will disappear in seconds!

Roll out the first disc of pastry dough and prick with a fork. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare the filling by mixing the spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper well together. Add the egg and beat again. Fill the pastry with the prepared mixture as follows. In the centre of the dough circle put a small dome of the filling. Leave a space of a few centimetres, then add more filling to form a circular ring. Take care to keep the filling far enough from the edge of the dough circle. At this point, cover with the second disk of pastry and seal the edges with the prongs of a fork. Take a small dessert bowl, place it upside down over the centre of the tart and with the tip of a knife, prick the pastry every 3cm around the bowl. Remove the bowl and, starting from these incisions, cut the tart into ‘spokes’ all around the cake, towards the outer rim. With the help of a spatula, take each slice of the tart and turn it 45 degrees: proceed until you done this for all the slices. Brush everything with milk and sprinkle the centre of the sunflower with poppy seeds. Finally, bake for 40 minutes.