Quince and Ricotta Tart

This is a delicate tart that I learnt to make when I worked at Noel's Gallery in Red Hill. Great for Autumn.

First, poach your quinces. I usually use a sugar syrup of about 1 litre of water to 1 cup of sugar, with a cinnamon stick/vanilla pod/star anise thrown in for extra flavour. Quarter quinces (don't bother to peel or core until they're cooked) put into an oven proof dish (eg: le cruset casserole with lid) and pour over enough syrup to cover. Pop a lid on the dish and place in the oven at about 180C for 2-3 hours, until colour has just turned pink. The tart recipe calls for two quinces, but if you cook several you can freeze what you don't use and make them into something else. The left over syrup is also delicious and can be used as a cordial, the base of a sweet sauce or jelly, or anything else you can think of that needs a nice quince flavour.

For the sweetcrust pastry.

In a food processor, combine 100g SR flour, 50g cornflour, 80g sugar, 80g butter and a small egg. Pulse until crumbly then tip onto cling wrap and press into a ball. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes. Once cooled, roll pastry to fit a 25cm flan tin. Line the tin with baking paper and place pastry into it (it's a bit fragile, so be careful). Prick with a fork and rest for a further 1/2 an hour (a lot of waiting, I know!).

For the Filling.

250g ricotta, 1/2c sugar, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 c cream cheese, 2T flour, zest of one lemon, 40ml lemon juice. Mix together well.

Once pastry has rested, blind bake in a 180C oven for 15 minutes, then a further 5 minutes uncovered. (Blind baking means lining the pastry with more baking paper, then filling the paper with dried beans to weigh it down and baking like this to begin cooking the pastry without letting it bubble up).

After pastry has been pre-cooked, place slices of peeled, cored quince onto the base, overlapping slightly. Pour over ricotta mixture, then sprinkle the top with ground cinnamon. Bake at 180C for approx 40 minutes, until it is firm in the middle. "Voila!"