The classic French open tart is a feast for the eyes. With summer fruits in abundance what better way to serve them than sitting in perfect concentric circles in a crisp, sweet pastry shell, glazed with fruit syrup? Who could pass a French patisserie and and not drool at the colourful sight of strawberries, blackcurrants, peaches, raspberries and so forth glistening in their cases?

Well let’s show off our strawberries in this heavenly open tart. Much is made of strawberries tasting good with black pepper, less is made of them tasting fabulous with tender tips of fresh mint. I like to infuse the flavour of mint into a confectioner’s custard (crème patissiere), spoon it into the cooked base of a shallow tart. and pile ripe strawberries over it. Decorate with a few more tips of mint before serving.

Ingredients - serves 6-8 pastry: 200g plain flour 100g butter 75g icing sugar 1 egg pinch of salt confectioner’s custard: 3 egg yolks 60g caster sugar 30g plain flour 300ml milk small bunch of fresh mint enough strawberries to fill the tart!

Method

Make the sweet pastry by placing the flour in a food processor together with the icing sugar, blitz briefly (this is as good as sieving the flour). Add the butter, cold and diced, and blitz briefly again to incorporate. Now add the egg and process just long enough to bring the dough together then stop immediately. Cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Now roll between two layers of cling film to the right size to line a 26cm tin. Line and prick the base with a fork before baking in a 180°C oven until golden and crisp. Sit on a rack to cool.

Make the custard by beating the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick. Stir in the flour. Scald the milk with a few sprigs of mint in it, remove from the heat and allow to infuse for several minutes; strain and discard the mint. Bring back to the boil then pour over the beaten yolks, whisking as you do so, return all to the heat and whisk gently to boiling and thickened - cook at a simmer for a couple of minutes to cook the flour and keep whisking to avoid lumps - now remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Rub the surface with a knob of butter to prevent a skin from forming as it cools.

Spoon mint custard into the pastry shell and then load it up with strawberries - dust with icing sugar and scatter fresh mint tips over.