Random Recipe Challenge ~ Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

We had friends around for dinner last night, one is a veggie, the other is a 'freedom' eater (vegetarian although he eats meat as and when he chooses, which usually tends to strikearound about the time we are at the German Christmas Market and he's had a few gluhweins!) and then there are the fussy eating habits of Hubby and I.  No pressure when planning the menu there then!

Fearing this challenge wasn't fraught with enough danger already I also decided to up the ante by taking part in Dom's  Random Recipe Challenge, and find a recipe for our main meal from one of my neglected and seldom appreciated cookbooks.  Dom's idea is to randomly selected one of your books and then randomly select a recipe from the index which you then need to make, if you've made it before then you should turn to the recipe on the next page and make that instead. 

Forgive me Dom but I cheated!  While the book was randomly selected, it was actually shortlisted from a whole host of books that I've had in my collection but either haven't used at all or I've used quite sparingly.  Then given the constraints of my dinner guests I selected a recipe from the index that was not only vegetarian but would also suit the carnivores.  But I figure the point of the challenge is to encourage everyone to use books that are often neglected and to try recipes that maybe wouldn't be considered normally, in which case I didn't cheat at all ... at least that's my excuse and I am sticking to it ;0)

Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

1 pre-baked 26cm tart shell (another cheat!  I used store bought shortcrust to make the tart shell as I was short on time)
Filling
250g mascarpone
350g creme fraiche
370g ricotta
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3 big handfuls of basil leaves (or 3-4 tbsp pesto if stuck for fresh basil)
80g freshly grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Make the tart shell!

Then pile all the ingredients for the filling in to a food processor and whiz them until they're thoroughly mixed together, stopping to scrape down the sides once as you go.  Don't over mix or the texture can turn grainy.  Taste to see how strong the basil is and add more if required.

Pour the filling into the prepared tart shell and bake for 40-50 mins, or until the filling is wobbly set and a bit puffed.  Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to settle in the tin for a few mins.

When you are ready to serve, carefully remove the tart from the tin and slide it onto a serving plate.  Its best served warm rather than hot.

Serves 6-8
Belinda Jeffery's Tried and True Recipes

I confess to being slightly disappointed with this tart.  It was a bit luck luster really ... but now I've typed the recipe out I realise that I forgot to put the parmesan in!  Doh!  It did create some lively conversation around the dinner table though once I had stated that it seemed to be missing something.  The freedom eater thought maybe blue cheese would do the trick , I wondered if maybe parmesan would add the missing sparkle (20:20 hindsight!) ... possibly the addition of a very finely chopped semi dried tomato or two?  At lunch time I even tried it with a dollop of caramelised onion chutney, which was delicious but totally overpowered the basil in the tart.  Well ... now I know what was missing ... we'll just keep that one between us ;0)