Recipes › Lettuce (Butterhead) › Butter-Wilted Lettuce and Leek Tart
Butter-Wilted Lettuce and Leek Tart
A golden shortcrust pastry case filled with a creamy, savoury custard packed with slowly wilted butterhead lettuce and sweet leeks. Cooking the lettuce transforms it entirely — the leaves collapse into something silky, rich, and deeply flavoured, a world away from a salad bowl. This is the kind of thing you make when your garden is giving you more butterhead than you know what to do with.
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Ingredients
- 200 g plain flour
- 100 g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes
- 3 tbsp cold water
- 2 Lettuce (Butterhead), leaves separated, washed, roughly torn
- 2 leeks, trimmed, halved lengthways, thinly sliced
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 200 ml double cream
- 3 whole eggs, beaten
- 80 Gruyère, finely gratedor mature Cheddar
- 1 pinch fresh nutmeg, grated
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: cereals gluten, eggs, milk.
Method
- Make the pastry: put the flour and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized pieces still visible. Add the cold water one tablespoon at a time, mixing with a table knife until the dough just comes together. Press into a flat disc, wrap in beeswax wrap or cling film and chill for 20 minutes.About 10 min
- Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm thick and use it to line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin, pressing well into the edges and leaving a slight overhang. Prick the base all over with a fork, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice.About 5 min
- Blind bake the pastry case for 15 minutes, then lift out the paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes until the base is dry and just golden. Use a small serrated knife to trim the overhang flush with the tin. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C / 160°C fan.About 20 min
- While the pastry bakes, melt the 30g butter in a wide sauté pan over a medium-low heat. Add the sliced leeks with a pinch of salt and cook gently for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until completely soft. Add the torn butterhead lettuce leaves in two or three batches, stirring each batch until wilted before adding the next. Cook for a further 3–4 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated and the pan looks dry. Season well and leave to cool for 5 minutes.About 15 min
- Whisk together the double cream, beaten eggs, half the Gruyère, nutmeg, salt and a good grind of black pepper in a jug.About 2 min
- Spread the wilted lettuce and leek mixture evenly across the pastry base. Pour the custard over the top — do this slowly so it settles around the vegetables without overflowing. Scatter the remaining Gruyère over the surface.About 2 min
- Bake at 180°C / 160°C fan for 25–30 minutes until the custard is just set with a very slight wobble in the centre. Leave to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.About 30 min
Tips
- Getting the moisture out of the lettuce and leeks before filling is essential — if the pan looks at all wet, keep cooking until it's dry. Any excess liquid will make the custard watery and the base soggy.
- The tart is arguably better eaten at room temperature than hot from the oven, once the custard has had time to firm up slightly.
- If your butterhead heads are on the smaller side, use three rather than two — you want a generous, generous filling.
Ring the changes
- Add 100g of crumbled goat's cheese to the filling along with the leeks for a sharper, more tangy tart.
- Stir a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard into the cream and egg mixture for a gentle heat that works beautifully with the sweet wilted lettuce.
Keeping it
Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Reheat slices in a 160°C oven for 10 minutes, or eat cold. Not suitable for freezing once baked.
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