Pear and Almond Tart for Esther

I have spent a lovely weekend catching up with an old friend. I haven't seen Esther for nearly two years, but she is one of those friends with whom you can pick up where you left off within minutes and be laughing together, weeding the garden together, rolling pastry, chopping tomatoes, drinking beer...



Food was a feature of the weekend. We both love great local, organic produce; especially since our Est's a Cumbrian farm girl. We ate pumpkin with deep-fried polenta and sage, pasta with tomato and basil sauce and a pear and almond tart. As promised to Esther, here is the recipe for the pear and almond tart - not one for which I can claim credit. This goes to Thomasina Miers and is from her great book, 'Cook' which was a birthday present from two other great friends. I love the taste of pears with lemon and bay leaves - an unexpectedly fabulous combo. We left out the blackberries cause it was 'too much'. I saved the syrup from the poaching process; Esther thinks it would be great over ice cream. I've been making variations on this tart all summer; it's especially good with plums soaked in brandy. It tends to be a bit runny if you serve it straight out of the oven and i find it benefits from sitting, cooling and solidifying for a while.

Pear and Almond Tart

Pastry
250g plain flour
25g icing sugar or caster sugar
125g butter
2 egg yolks

For the Frangipane:
175g ground almonds
175g sugar
175g butter
1 egg plus 1 yolk

For the pears:
200g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
1 bay leaf
grated zest of 1 lemon
5 pears, peeled, cored and quartered.
1 punnet of blackberries (optional)
dash of brandy (optional)

Whizz the pastry ingredients in a food processor, then add enough water, bit by bit, until the dough just comes together into a ball. Turn out onto a clean surface and bring together, wrapping the dough in clingfilm. Pat down in a flat circular shape and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 mins. Roll out to fit a 24cm pie dish (Esther says: nice and thin!) Bake blind in a preheated oven 180C/350F/Gas4 and leave to cool.

Place the almonds, butter and sugar into a food processor and whizz briefly. Then add the egg. Combine and set the frangipane mixture aside.

Bring 200ml of water to the boil in a saucepan and add the sugar. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved, then add the vanilla pod, bay leaf and lemon zest. Add the pears and poach for 10 minutes (roughly! mine took a lot longer than this), then drain and slice thinly. Do what you wish with the poaching liquid, but it's not required from here on in.

Spread the frangipane over the base of the pastry case and arrange the pears on top in overlapping fans. Sprinkle with blackberries (if using) and a dash of brandy. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed up, golden and beautiful.