Nigel Slater’s kitchen diary: coppa, fig and gorgonzola tarts

Photographs Jonathan Lovekin

I lifted a tray of savoury tarts from the oven and brought them to table. A melting, piquant filling with the honeyed sweetness of a roasted fig, the pastry as crisp as autumn leaves. They were meant for lunch with a green and white salad of spinach and frisée, but they vanished in minutes.

I value a roll of puff pastry in the freezer – the all-butter variety, if I can find it. Defrosted in minutes, this is the base on which to smear a wave of pale olive paste or basil pesto, torn pieces of mozzarella or spoonfuls of the softest blue cheese.

You then have almost unlimited options with which to finish the tarts: slices of tomato, grilled courgette, preserved artichokes or a sautéed fig or pear. Perhaps curls of Parma ham or thin slices of deliciously marbled coppa.

Autumn brings out a yearning for blue cheese and sweet fruit. Gorgonzola and fig is the finest of marriages, melting most lusciously as a filling for tarts, so I added figs to my shopping list. Pears would be perfect as well; and if they aren’t perfectly ripe, it is worth quickly frying them in a little butter first.

I made my first porridge of the season. To the finished bowl I stirred in a trickle of maple syrup and a spoonful of crème fraîche, the latter slowly melting into the thick, gold syrup. It will be the first of many porridge breakfasts – something I adored as a kid and then forgot about for years.

There was a good pumpkin salad on the table the other day. I cut half a small, firm-fleshed fruit into wedges, leaving the skin in place, and roasted them with olive oil, dried thyme and a few flicks of deep red powdered sumac.

Once they had rested, I moved the orange wedges to a large oval plate and dressed them with a mixture of olive oil, crumbled feta and the last few mint leaves from the pot on the garden steps. A good one, that.

I am still picking up the last of the autumn raspberries from the shops. They are even more fragrant than those in the summer, and possibly more welcome too, being the last of this year’s homegrown fruit. They are glorious crushed in a little crème fraîche and piled on to thin shortbread. And if you are staying clear of dairy, crush a handful with a fork into a bowl of warm stewed apple. The smell is almost as good as the taste.

Makes 4. Ready in 45 minutes.

When you are brushing the pastry cases with the beaten egg, take care not to let it drip down the cut sides of the pastry. The egg will stop your pastry rising. That said, the pastry only has to rise enough to hold the filling in place. If you prefer, you could make one large tart. The method is the same, but leave the pastry sheet whole rather than cutting it into eight. Score a rim 1.5cm in from the edge of the pastry sheet, then bake and fill as below.

puff pastry 320gfigs 4mozzarella 250ggorgonzola 200gcrème fraîche 4 heaped tbspthyme leaves 2 tbspegg a little, beatencoppa 8 thin slices

On a floured board, roll the pastry out to a rectangle roughly 36cm x 23cm. With the longest side towards you, cut down into 4 rectangles measuring 9cm x 23cm, then cut each in half again to give 8 squares of pastry.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Place each one on the lined baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, score a second square inside each one, leaving a 1.5cm rim around the edges and taking care not to cut through the pastry. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Cut each fig into 4 wedges. Tear the mozzarella and gorgonzola into small pieces and drop them into a bowl. Add the crème fraîche, the thyme leaves and a grinding or two of black pepper.

Break the egg into a small bowl, whisk briefly with a fork to mix yolk and white, then carefully brush the outer rim of each tart without letting any egg drip down the sides (which would prevent it rising).

Bake the pastry in the preheated oven for 8 minutes until it is just starting to colour and crisp. Remove from the oven and, using a small knife and a teaspoon, remove the top layer of the innermost square of each tart to leave a shallow hollow.

Spoon the filling into the hollows, tucking in pieces of coppa and slices of fig as you go. Brush the pastry rim of the tarts with a little more of the beaten egg, again taking care not to let it run down the sides of the pastry.

Return the tarts to the oven and bake them for a further 10-15 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden and the cheeses have melted. Eat straight away, while they are still warm.