This pretty savoury spiral tart isn’t too tricky to make, but is an impressive piece to bring out. The tart combines sweet layered vegetables, a nutty spelt crust, and a subtle hint of pesto and good strong cheese (Swiss, of course).

(makes one 25cm diameter tart)

The Pastry Crust

• 220g wholemeal spelt flour
• 125g unsalted butter
• 25g finely grated gruyere cheese
• 1 lightly beaten egg yolk

1. Crumb the butter into the flour with your fingertips
2. Stir through the grated gruyere
3. Stir in the egg yolk and knead dough until just combined
4. If sticky and too soft, refrigerate for 15 minutes
5. Roll out the pastry on a sheet of baking paper until large enough to cover the tart pan or until around 2.5mm thick
6. Flip baking paper with pastry into your baking pan, allowing the edges to drape over the edge of the pan
7. Press the pastry into the pan and pinch over the edge of the pan (see gifs of how to do this here). The pastry will be crumbly due to the type of flour but try not to overwork the dough in the process
8. Prick the base with a fork
9. Crumple a piece of baking paper, unfold, place into the tart case, and fill with baking beans
10. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius under the fan setting for 10 minutes
11. Remove baking beans and baking paper and bake for 5 more minutes until dry and almost baked
12. Trim the pastry edges with a sharp knife

The Filling

• 250g mascarpone
• 2 eggs
• 100g green pesto (I use a good store-bought Ottiger one we love but feel free to make one yourself!)
• 25g breadcrumbs
• 100g finely grated gruyere
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the above ingredients together
2. Spread over baked tart crust

The Rose

• 3 small sweet potatoes
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 large aubergine, cut in half lengthways
• 1 lemon
• Few pinches of salt
• Healthy drizzle of olive oil
• Handful of fresh thyme

1. Use a mandoline slicer to slice all the vegetables as thinly as possible (to around 2mm thickness). You could do this by hand too but it is far more time consuming
2. Rub the aubergine with lemon as you slice it to prevent browning
3. Blanch sweet potato slices until half cooked and soft enough to fold
4. Salt the vegetable slices
5. Layer alternating vegetable slices on top of each other and begin rolling the spiral. I do this on a piece of kitchen roll to dry the water released when salting the vegetables
6. Continually add alternating slice after slice while rolling the spiral
7. When the spiral gets too large to roll without falling apart, place it in the tart. Now continue the spiral by adding vegetable layer into the tart until you have reached the edge of the tart
8. Give the tart a healthy drizzle of olive oil, a final salt, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme. Press the thyme into the layers of the tart
9. Bake the tart at 160 degrees Celsius in a fan setting for 1 hour until the vegetables are cooked and browned. Check during baking and brush on more olive oil if necessary
10. Enjoy hot or cold