Artichoke and Parmesan Galette
Rich with flavours of artichoke and Parmesan, this delicious tart is the perfect satisfying supper paired with a fresh salad.
From the book
Smitten Kitchen Every Day
Fuss-free recipes for delicious home cooking
Inspiration for quick midweek dinners
Stunning desserts and comforting bakes
Introduction
My mother, eager to have another artichoke lover in the family—i.e., an excuse to bring them home more often—taught me when I was young how to pull off the leaves from artichokes we’d boiled forever, dip them into a mixture of mayo, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and rake off the meaty bits with our teeth. Teenaged Deb thought this was all there was to know about artichokes—I mean, what more could an artichoke lover ever want or need? But adult-aged Deb is whispering “Rome” right now, “carciofi alla romana, alla giudia . . .”—which is why I had my mind blown in college when someone brought a baked artichoke dip to a party and I’d never had anything so good. My friend couldn’t believe I’d never heard of this hack of canned artichoke, mayo, and Parmesan, but it quickly became my favorite thing.
I probably haven’t had it in the better part of two decades, mostly because the narrow window of time in my life when I knew about this dip and could get away with eating it freely has long since passed. I had great fun, however, figuring out a way to get the flavors I love in that catastrophically unhealthy dish into a vegetable tart we could eat on a weekday night by pairing it with salad. Nobody can accuse me of not having admirable goals.
Ingredients
| For the crust: | |
| 165g (1¼ cups) | plain flour, plus more for your work surface |
| ¼ tsp | fine salt or table salt |
| 35g (¼ cup) | finely grated Parmesan |
| 115g (½ cup or 4 ounces) | unsalted butter, cut into pieces |
| 2 tbsp (30g) | sour cream |
| 2 tsp (10ml) | fresh lemon juice (from about ¼ of a juicy lemon) |
| 60ml (¼ cup) | very cold water |
| nonstick cooking spray or cooking oil for coating pan | |
| For the filling: | |
| 2 x 400g (14 ounce) | cans artichoke hearts, drained very well, then patted on towels |
| 2 | large eggs |
| 50g (¼ cup) | mayonnaise |
| 60g (¼ cup) | sour cream |
| 120ml (½ cup) | milk |
| finely grated zest and juice ½ lemon | |
| 1 | garlic clove, finely chopped |
| ½ tsp | sea salt |
| freshly ground black pepper | |
| 65g (½ cup) plus 2 tbsp (15g) | finely grated Parmesan |
| 2 tbsp | chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley |
| Optional glaze: | |
| 1 | large egg yolk and a few drops of water |
Method
Make the dough
Stir the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Sprinkle the Parmesan and butter over this and, using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of tiny peas. In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, lemon juice, and water, and add this to the butter-flour mixture. With your fingertips or a wooden spoon, mix in the liquid until large clumps form. Pat the clumps into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to 2 days.
Heat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Coat a 9-inch cake pan, a standard pie dish, or a 9-inch pastry ring with nonstick spray, and place on a baking sheet.
Make the filling
Roll out the crust, on a floured counter, into a roughly 12-inch round. Transfer it to the prepared baking dish, and let the extra dough drape over the sides.
Drain the artichokes well, pressing out any extra liquid you can before spreading them out on a couple layers of paper towels for a few minutes, to remove as much moisture as possible. Cut them into thin slices, and place them in the bottom of the crust. Whisk together the eggs, mayo, sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and 65 grams (1/2 cup) of the grated Parmesan. Stir in the parsley. Pour the custard over the artichokes. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Gently lift the sides of the dough up over the custard filling, and pinch them together—you’re going to want to do this in the air, hovering over the filling, not by pressing down on it, of course, because the filling is primarily liquid. Let the creased dough edges gently, loosely rest on the surface of the tart. Repeat all around.
Finish and bake
If desired, because it will add a deeper color and shine to the crust, whisk the yolk and water together, and gently brush over the surface of the crust. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the eggs are set. If the top is not quite brown enough, run under grill for 1 minute.
Let the galette cool on a rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.
Note
I also attempted here to mash up a quiche—everyone loves to eat them but hates the fussiness of a rolled and parbaked crust—and a galette, which is far more rustic and forgiving. Galettes do not excel at holding in liquid, however, because they’re baked on a flat pan. I solve this problem by dropping the galette dough into any round baking dish with sides—a cake pan, pie pan, or tart ring—which gives the sides enough structure to hold in liquid but keeps it as easy to make as a rustic galette. Just a heads-up: the bottom of the crust doesn’t get fully crisp.
