Rhubarb panna cotta tart

A beautiful and delicate tart with a shortcrust pastry, silky vanilla panna cotta filling and tender roasted rhubarb. It looks stunning, tastes even better, and I have a feeling this panna cotta filling will become my favourite tart filling this year, paired with all kinds of seasonal fruit.

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 195 g plain flour
• 115 g cold butter, diced
• 1 large egg yolk
• 30 g icing sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the butter and rub it in (or pulse in a food processor) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, icing sugar, salt and cold water, then quickly knead into a smooth dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.

Grease and lightly flour a 24 cm tart tin, shaking out any excess flour.  Roll out the chilled pastry and line the tart tin. Trim the edges and prick the base with a fork. Line with baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beans (or dried beans or rice).

Bake at 190°C for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and baking beans, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for the panna cotta filling:

• 100 ml milk
• 630 ml double cream
• 75 g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 teaspoons (9 g) powdered gelatine

Sprinkle the gelatine over 50 ml of the cold milk and leave to bloom for 10 minutes.

Pour the remaining milk and the double cream into a saucepan. Add the sugar. Split the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add both the seeds and the pod to the pan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as the mixture begins to simmer, remove it from the heat and discard the vanilla pod. Add the bloomed gelatine and stir until completely dissolved. Leave to cool, then refrigerate until the mixture begins to thicken slightly.

Pour the thickening panna cotta over the cooled tart shell and refrigerate until completely set.

Ingredients for the roasted rhubarb:

• 250 g rhubarb, cut into 10 cm lengths
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Arrange the rhubarb in a small baking dish. Drizzle with the honey, lemon juice and vanilla.

Bake at 200°C for 12–15 minutes, stirring gently once halfway through cooking. The rhubarb should be tender but still hold its shape. Leave to cool completely.

Arrange the cooled rhubarb over the set panna cotta and spoon over the honey-rhubarb syrup from the baking dish. Store the tart in the refrigerator, but remove it 30 minutes before serving for the best flavour and texture.

Enjoy!