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Strawberry, Pomegranate & Pistachio Tart
Author: Claudia Brick
Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
  • 228 g flour just a smidge over 1 3/4 cups
  • 2/3 cup icing sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 165 g unsalted butter chopped
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 large egg
Pistachio Frangipane
  • 115 g unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1/2 cup 100g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 70 g almond meal / ground almonds
  • 70 g pistachios ground to a similar texture to the almonds
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
  • 1 pomegranate, deseeded, divided into 2 parts
Mascarpone Cream and to top
  • 200 g mascarpone
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1/4 cup icing sugar sifted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
  • 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
  • 1 teaspoon sumac
  • 2-3 punnets fresh strawberries (600g), similarly sized for best results
  • icing sugar to dust
  • more pomegranate arils to top
Instructions
Shortcrust Pastry
  1. Blitz the flour, icing sugar and salt together in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until a bread-crumb like texture forms. Add the lemon zest, vanilla and egg and pulse 10 times. The mixture will still be pretty crumbly. Turn out onto a clean surface and gather and press together. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
  2. Grease a 26-28cm tart tin. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured bench to about 3mm thick and line the tart tin, pressing firmly into the sides of the tin. The pastry will be hard to roll out at first but don’t worry, it will soften as you go. If it rips at all or you find that one edge is too thin, it is easy to use the leftover pastry scraps to patch it back together.
  3. Trim the pastry to form a neat edge - I usually just roll my rolling pin over the edge to cut through the pastry. It normally leaves enough extra pastry scraps to line another mini tart tin as well, but this is totally up to you.
  4. Rest the lined tart tin in the freezer for 30 minutes while you make the frangipane.
Pistachio Frangipane
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully combined. Mix in the vanilla and salt.
  4. Add the ground almonds and ground pistachios until just combined.
  5. Spoon the frangipane into the frozen tart shell and spread into an even layer.

  6. Scatter with the raspberries and half of the pomegranate arils (save the rest to top later) and gently press into the frangipane

  7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the frangipane is set and the pastry is golden.
  8. Set aside to cool completely (in the fridge if you don’t have much time).
Mascarpone cream and to top
  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a hand electric beater), combine the cream, mascarpone, vanilla paste, pomegranate molasses and sumac. Beat until thick and creamy - thick peaks, but don’t go too far or it becomes grainy and buttery.
  2. Spoon over the cooled tart and spread to the edges, with a thicker rim of cream around the edge.
  3. Slice the strawberries long-ways into 3mm pieces, setting aside the edge pieces (you can serve these on the side, but not for the actual tart).
  4. Starting from the outside and working inwards, arrange the strawberry slices in circles, stalk end down (see photos).
  5. Dust with icing sugar, sprinkle with the remaining pomegranate arils and serve straight away. Cut with a very sharp knife so you can slice through the strawberries rather than squashing them!