Honeyed mascarpone tart with ovenpoached rhubarb

Method

1. For the rhubarb, heat the oven to 120°C/100°C fan/gas 1. Mix the sugar, bitters (if using), lemon zest and juice with 100ml water. Arrange the rhubarb in a small baking dish in a single layer, then pour the liquid on top. Cover the dish with foil and cook in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Depending on their ripeness, some bits of the rhubarb may cook quicker than others, so check it from 30 minutes. The rhubarb is cooked when it’s just soft and yielding to the touch but keeping its shape. Carefully transfer the rhubarb to a container and pour over its cooking syrup, then leave to cool and chill overnight.
2. If you’re making your own pastry (otherwise you’ll need about 250g of shop bought shortcrust pastry), put the flour, butter, icing sugar and salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times until the butter resembles breadcrumbs in the mix. Add the egg yolk and 1 tbsp iced water and pulse a couple more times until the yolk is evenly distributed. Tip the mix into a bowl and use your hands to bring it together to form a dough – add another tbsp iced water if it feels too dry. Shape into a disc, wrap, then chill for 1 hour.
3. Put your tart tin on an oven tray – it’ll be so much easier to move around if it’s on another tray. Remove the chilled pastry from the fridge and roll it out into a 33-34cm disc – around 2mm thick. Keep lightly dusting the pastry and surface with flour if it feels like it will stick. Lay the pastry into the tin and press it into the sides – there should be 1-2cm overhang. If there are any cracks, patch them up with excess trimmed from the overhang. Chill the case again for at least 1 hour or it might shrink in the oven. The same goes for shop-bought pastry too!
4. Heat the oven to 195°C/175°C fan/gas 5½. Scrunch up a sheet of baking paper, use it to line the pastry case, then fill with baking beans or rice. Blind bake for 20 minutes, then remove the beans/ rice and paper and bake for 10 minutes more. The case should be properly golden, as the second bake is at such a low temperature it won’t cook the pastry. As soon as it’s cooked, turn the oven down to 120°C/100°C fan/ gas ½, take out the tart case and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
5. For the filling, whisk the egg yolks, cornflour and vanilla until smooth and combined. Whisk in the mascarpone, beating well to break down any lumps. Once smooth, pour in the honey and cream, then gently whisk to mix.
6. Pour the mixture into your baked tart case and bake for 30 minutes, then turn the oven up to 130°C/110°C fan/gas 1½ and bake for 30 minutes more. The custard should still have a good wobble when it’s baked, but it will set as it cools. Leave to cool to room temperature before carefully sliding out of the tin onto a plate. Serve with a few spears of the poached rhubarb.