Pea and Pancetta Tart

Despite best planning for entertaining, we often overestimate the mountains of food people will eat. Well it’s better than underestimating, I reckon. So it was that I was left with a grassy knoll of peas after a recent bacchanal. I could have just eaten them as a side dish to something, but I considered transforming them into an interesting lunch. I had some slices of pancetta lounging about the fridge, and pork and peas do unite mighty well, so that was an admirable start. The rest of my inspiration came from The Silver Spoon’s Pea section.

Line a pie dish or tart tin with pastry. I used a pre-made butter puff sheet from the freezer in the spirit of laissez faire leftovers gastronomy. Throw in the peas, some crisp fried pancetta and a big handful of grated cheese. I used Jarlsberg, but Gruyere or anything blue would probably work too. Mix an egg with 125 mls of cream, add some snipped chives and seasoning (not too much salt coz of the pancetta) and pour over the filling. Bake at 200°C for 20-30 mins or until the filling puffs up and bronzes on top.

This tart is more about the peas (or ‘pea driven’ if I were to emulate a tosser food writer) and not really quiche-y. The egg and cream mix sort of sets the peas in place rather than creating an eggy filling, which was the effect I was after. Given it was a pretty shallow tart with a dry-ish filling the pastry crisped up marvellously well and provided the requisite crunch factor in the finished product. I had a bit cold for breaky the next day and that was good too. Leftovers of my leftovers.