The plum trees have gone absolutely bonkers this year. We missed the best of the Victorias – we always do – because we were on the Isle of Wight, though I managed to freeze three trays full against the winter months. The greengage, though, is doing better than I’ve ever seen it. I’ve made six jars of jam, there’s easily as much fruit again still on the tree, and a load on the ground as well. (It’s been such a hard summer, I’m leaving that for the birds.)
This tart comes from the original Roasting Tin book. Rukmini Iyer uses huge, beautiful purple plums, which look much prettier cooked. But she had a food stylist and (I assume) didn’t have a glut of greengages. It is extremely tasty no matter how it looks.
Anyway, it’s dead easy: lay out ready-made puff pastry in a lined roasting tin, cover with stoned halved plums of whatever variety (this was 400g, about 5 minutes worth of picking and 20 of prepping), skin side down; mix 75g soft brown sugar with a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon and about the same of finely chopped rosemary and sprinkle it over the plums; add a few more sprigs of rosemary, and bake at 220°C (200°C fan) for half an hour.
It was the first time I’ve used the “Green Ginger” variety of rosemary, too. It’s the furthest away from the door, but I thought it would be worth including it in this one. I’m not sure how much of a difference it really made, but since the whole thing was very pleasant I’ll probably do it again next year. Maybe with more rosemary.
Kathleen Jowitt 