Tarte Provencale will remain in the repertoire for the rest of my baking days. Rustic and sophisticated… special… one of the best things coming from the kitchen! Had a slice – looking forward to another tomorrow. Don’t be dissuaded by the unusual combination of ingredients: make it as written then tweak it to suit your tastes, providing you find it needs tweaking at all. Let us know what you think and in what direction you might decide to go.

1. The woodchuck has mostly left the chard alone, so we can harvest some every day.

2.  One of my favorite pizzas is topped with chard, golden raisins, goat cheese on top of dots of pesto or tomato sauce with a grating of Parmesan Cheese on top.

3.  The bean and nut crust we used for Broccoli Quiche is easy, fast, nutritious, and has a great consistency.  Because it’s so user friendly I decided to adapt it for a sweet tart.

4.  Tart, pie, quiche, whatever… if well done, it’s almost always uniquely satisfying.

Gluten Free Tart Provencale – serves 10 – 12

Click Here For Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

6 ounces cooked white beans, rinsed and dried

5 ounces walnuts

4 ounces pine nuts

1/8 teaspoon salt

10 ounces fresh swiss chard (leaves and tender stems), washed, blanched, wrung dry, and chopped fine (1/4″ strips)

3 egg yolks

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup mascarpone or cream cheese

2 large plums, not quite ripe, washed, pitted, and chopped into small pieces

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup (2 oz.) confectioners’ sugar

1/3 cup rum

Pinch salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F and lightly grease a tart pan.

2.  In a food processor combine the beans, walnuts, pine nuts, and salt.  Process until the mixture comes together as a dough. There will be small pieces of nuts – these will lend body and texture to the crust.

3.  Press the “dough” evenly onto the bottom and sides of the tart pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 F. Set aside while continuing with the filling ingredients.

4.  Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Add the mascarpone, chard, plums, raisins, powdered sugar, salt, and olive oil.  Stir to combine.

5.  Add the rum and stir to blend evenly.  Pour the filling into the pre-baked crust and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until the top begins to bubble and is lightly browned.

6.  Cool 10-15 minutes before serving.

This can be dessert with mascarpone whipped cream or rum raisin ice cream.  Serve small slices on the side of a tangy salad, or as a decadent Sunday Brunch treat with a cup of coffee or tea .

Adding the pine nuts to the beans and walnuts

A couple of twists of the salt grinder

Dough was a little wet – should have been more careful about drying the beans

Went with it, pressing into the prepared pan

Into the 350 F oven

Steamed chard (4-5 minutes)

Rolling to dry and…

… wring out the excess moisture

Chard chopped fine

Combining the egg yolks and Mascarpone

Plums, washed, pitted and diced

Ingredients ready to blend

Adding the rum

Pouring the filling into the crust

Ready to go into the 350 F oven

Just out of the oven

Served the first slice

Detail of Tart Provencale