I am always so happy to get may hands on some forced rhubarb, its a little sweeter and less bitter than the regular rhubarb and has a beautiful vibrant pink colour. I decided to make a really simple tart with it and some lemon curd, rosemary and vanilla. To soak up some of the juices when it cooked i added some ground almonds into the tart too, and also i added some chopped flaked almonds onto the pastry. Rhubarb can get a bit soggy so that part is really important. It was really delicious with some vanilla custard, but i bet warmed up with vanilla ice cream it would also be good.

recipe

for pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 110g unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp. golden caster sugar
• 3 tbsp. water or lemon juice (you may need more)
• zest of a lemon
• pinch of salt

in a bowl or in a food processor mix together the flour and butter  (if making by hand rub the butter with the flour until it resembled bread crumbs) add the sugar, salt and lemon zest and mix then add the water or lemon juice a little at a time until it comes together. press into a ball and let rest for twenty minutes.

preheat the oven to 180c 350f

roll out the pastry into a rectangle then spread on about 5 tbsp. lemon curd into the centre, then sprinkle over 5 tbsp. of finely ground almonds,

slice 5 long stalks of rhubarb diagonally so you have a point, cut two one way and two another so you can slot them together (two with the point on the left and two with the point on the right) and make a pattern with them, cut the other one in normal chunks to fill in the gaps, sprinkle over 4 tbsp. caster sugar and the grated zest of a lemon and some chopped rosemary (1 tsp) then slice a vanilla pod open and scrape out the seeds and sprinkle that on.

brush a beaten egg onto the pastry and press on some sliced almonds and bake for 35/40 minutes. serve warm with custard or ice cream.