How to cook vegetables like an Italian

“This delicious savoury tart is made for the spring, when asparagus is plentiful and at its best,” says Gennaro Contaldo.

If you don’t have parma ham, use cooked ham or, if you don’t eat meat, omit altogether.

Serve with a potato salad.”

Torta salata di asparagi

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

375g ready-made shortcrust pastry

200g asparagus

150g ricotta

4 eggs

30g grated parmesan

100g parma ham, roughly torn

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Crunchy mixed salad, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan/200C/gas mark 6. Grease and line a 22 centimetre (8½ inch) round tart or quiche tin and line it with baking paper.

2. Roll out the pastry and use it to line the bottom of the prepared tin. Cover the pastry with baking paper, top with baking beans and bake blind for about 15 minutes, until the sides of the pastry have cooked through and are golden.

3. Using a large spoon, remove the beans and then the baking paper from the pastry case and return the pastry to the oven for a further five to 10 minutes, until the base is a pale golden colour.

4. Remove from the oven and prepare the filling.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 130C fan/150C/gas mark 2.

6. Finely chop most of the asparagus, reserving seven or eight spears, then bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the asparagus for about three minutes until just tender, then drain well and leave to cool.

7. In a bowl, combine the ricotta, eggs, parmesan, parma ham, a little salt and pepper and the chopped asparagus. Fill the pastry case with this mixture, then arrange the whole asparagus spears over the top. Bake in the lower third of the oven for about 40 minutes, until the filling has set.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for five minutes before serving with a crunchy mixed salad.