A Simple Springtime Menu

With recipes for a rhubarb & cheddar tart, a scrumptious salad, and an even more scrumptious chocolate raspberry cheesecake

Hello! Happy Sunday! Happy Spring!

I’ve been thinking: sometimes trying a new thing is a good thing. I say this because by nature I’m a creature of habit: I get used to things being a certain way and really like them to stay that way. I’m not especially proud of it; it’s not my best quality; but there we are, it is what it is. I’m the sort of person who still likes to read books like a book, not on a kindle. I love writing this newsletter, for example, but really haven’t got my head round all the other jazzy things you can do here on substack: the video and the audio and all those other clever bits and bobs.

That said, I hosted my first Live cook-along here last week and, while I’ll admit that I had rather got my knickers in a twist about it (the tech bit! the cooking in front of someone bit! the what-if-I-press-the-wrong-button bit! all of it really), but in practice I actually loved it. Who knew?! Sometimes, it seems, trying a new thing is a good thing.

The Live thing was really fun: like cooking with a friend in the kitchen, that kind of fun. So a big thank you to all of you who joined and made the new thing feel like a good thing for me: moving forward, I’m excited to do lots more like that. I’ll keep writing, of course: I love writing and am so grateful for this space where I can write freely about all the things that most excite me and interest me most right now; but every now and then I thought it could be fun to (virtually) potter in the kitchen together too. If you think that might be the sort of thing you would enjoy too please do let me know in the comments - and if there is anything in particular that you fancy cooking together then please let me know on that as well.

Also! It turns out I’m hopeless at multitasking and missed all the live comments during the cook-along. Sorry! I thought I could go back and look at them later but it seems they just vanish into thin air when the Live closes (like I said: the tech!): so if you do have any questions about the recipes, or any questions generally at all, please do just add them to the comments here and I’ll get back to you.

Anyway, I promised I would share the recipes in a post for those of you who (like me) like to see things written down and on paper, as it were, so they can process them and start to cook them. So here we go, three Springtime recipes for a super simple supper (or lunch) which you can easily throw together in thirty minutes or so: Rhubarb and Cheddar Tart; a nice, crisp green salad with a mustard-y dressing; and a Raspberry and Chocolate Cheesecake (of sorts). The recipes and quantities below are based on four people, but you could happily stretch the tart to feed six, then just bump up the quantities for the cheesecakes by half, and maybe make the salad a little more on the generous side. If you wanted to stretch the meal out further, you might want to think about boiling (or steaming) some new potatoes; then just drench with olive oil and season with salt flakes, a good grinding of black pepper and and a shower of coarsely chopped fresh herbs (parsley, mint, etc.) to make a very good potato salad, which you can serve (warm or at room temperature) on the side to go with the tart and the rest.

Rhurbarb and Cheddar Tart

Serves 4-6

325g sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g mascarpone
2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
400g thin stems of bright pink rhubarb
1 tbsp caster sugar
130g Cheddar cheese, grated
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200 ̊C/180 ̊C fan/Gas 6. Unroll the sheet of pastry on to the tray, using the paper it came wrapped up in to line the baking tray. Use a sharp knife to score a 2–3cm border around the edge.

Brush the pastry edge with the egg, then blind-bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until dry to the touch and lightly golden at the edges. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes, if you can.

In a small bowl, combine the mascarpone with the Parmesan and season generously with salt and pepper. Spoon the mascarpone over the middle of the tart and spread it out as evenly as you can. If the pastry is puffed up in the middle, don’t worry, just press it down gently with your hands and spoon the mascarpone on top. Cut the rhubarb into long-ish pieces, roughly 16cm long, and arrange them snugly, side by side like soldiers, over the mascarpone. Sprinkle the sugar over the rhubarb, then top with the grated Cheddar.

Set back in the oven to bake for 15–20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the rhubarb is tender. Ideally serve warm.