Rustic Peach & Rosemary Tart
I feel very fortunate to have grown up in the UK with access to Europe’s bounty of fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables—I miss Italian tomatoes now that I live in Canada. But it wasn’t until my first trip here that I was able to taste the abundance of Ontario’s summer fruit. One thing that stood out the most to me was Niagara peaches.
Over 90% of Ontario’s tender fruit crop comes from the Niagara Peninsula. The region is filled with orchards and vineyards adorned with fresh fruit. One can even go and pick their own at certain establishments. It’s also a notable wine region, imparting further reason to visit.
During the season, peaches flood Toronto’s supermarkets and grocery stores. Large packs are sold at fantastic prices. My wife and I buy several of these during the season, but sometimes we have more than we need and want to put them to use before they turn. This peach tart is a quick and easy way to cook up a fabulous summery dessert while using up excess fruit.
This recipe requires the use of a 23cm/9" tart tin. You can also use apricots for this recipe as an alternative to peaches.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 250g all-purpose flour
- 125g cold unsalted butter
- 100g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
Filling
- 3–5 peaches size dependent
- 100g caster sugar
- 20g unsalted butter
- 2 sprigs rosemary
Method
- To make the pastry, process the butter, icing sugar and flour in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg, then process briefly until combined into a smooth dough. Add the water if the dough is too stiff and needs loosening a little. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can combine the ingredients by hand and knead until they form a smooth dough.)
- Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. While that’s happening, preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF.
- Lightly flour a cool work surface and roll out the pastry into a circle slightly larger than a 23cm/9" tart tin.
- Line the tart tin with the pastry.
- Cover the pastry with baking paper and spread baking beads over the base of the tart. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes before removing the paper and baking beads, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- Once the pastry case is done, it’s time to prepare the filling. Sprinkle half the sugar on the pastry base of the pastry. Half the peaches and stone them, then place them dome side up on the pastry tightly together. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on the fruit. Add a small knob of butter to the top of each half of the peaches. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stalks and scatter them on top of the tart.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. The fruit should be cooked, and a rich syrup should have formed.
- Serve either warm with a cold dollop of good-quality vanilla ice cream or serve once cooled with crème fraîche.