Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 13cm x 35cm tart tin.

With a fork, stir together the butter and sugar. Add the flour and salt and stir to form a soft dough.

Spread this into the prepared tin, pressing it into the base and up the sides with your fingers. You can level off the top of the pastry with a sharp knife so the edge is even - just add the bits of extra pastry into any part of the tin where it looks a bit thin.

Put in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Meanwhile, whisk together the cream, eggs, vanilla, chocolate, and sugar to make the filling. Whisk in the flour until combined. (A friend of mine recently found that when she tried to add the melted chocolate to this mixture, it went hard in the cold cream & eggs - I have never had this happen and haven't figured out why it did, but if it does, put the whole mixture in a small pot over a very low heat and stir until the chocolate has melted through and it is all combined).

Place the pastry shell in the oven for 5 minutes. Halve and pit the cherries (I find an olive pitter works really well here!

Remove tart from the oven, sprinkle the almond meal over the pastry base, then pour over the filling. Place the cherries, cut side up, over the filling and return to the oven for 20-25min, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is set.

Allow tart to cool in the tin before serving. Dust with icing sugar and serve alone or with your choice of whipped cream or ice-cream.