This is an amazingly easy and delicious tart, based on my grandmother's recipe for crostata. The tartness of the rhubarb perfectly offsets the sweet nuttiness of the crust.
The beauty of this recipe is that you just mix the base in a food processor and then press it into the baking dish - no messy rolling required.
The time you save on the pastry you can then dedicate to making a beautiful pattern with the rhubarb.
Ingredients
200g Whole Unskinned Almonds200g Plain Flour
200g Butter
150g Sugar + 1 tbsp for sprinkling
300g Rhubarb
Rinse and dry the rhubarb stalks.
Pre-heat oven to 180°C: 350°F: Gas 4
Roughly process the almonds then add the flour, butter and sugar till well blended and there are no obvious lumps of butter left. It should still be crumbly.
Tip the mixture into a greased 10” or 12" pie tin, press it down to create a thick pie-crust, leaving it slightly thicker around the edge.
Cut the rhubarb stalks into 1cm pieces and arrange them in concentric circles, starting about 2cm away from the edge and working inwards. Start with the wider stalks on the outside, then use thinner ones as the circles get smaller. It's a good idea to cut the stalks on a slight slant to create tapered pieces. This will become obvious when you try it - as the circles get tighter the gaps between the rectangular pieces become more apparent.
If you get bored arranging the pieces you can always just spread them out anyhow - but that would be a real shame.
Sprinkle 1tbsp of sugar over the rhubarb.
Bake for 30 minutes – or until lightly browned around the edges.
Leave to cool then eat your first slice, See if you can resist taking a second slice immediately. I bet you can't.
2021 Update
The method described above makes for quite a crumbly crust.
For a crisper crust, turn the processed ingredients onto a surface and knead for a couple of minutes until the dough comes together into a smooth ball. Then roll the dough out to the correct size and drop it into the buttered tin.
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