Sausage, Courgette & Leek Tart with Cheese Pastry

We're still gaily chomping through the courgettes from our allotment (well some of us a little more gaily than others), although I don't think there'll be many more now - hurray says hubby! We've eaten them every which way - stir-fried in garlic butter, mixed with pesto, in soup, in pilau, in curry etc etc and.... in this sausage tart. Cheese pastry really adds to the overall flavour of the tart, you can make it with bought shortcrust if you don't want to make your own but I'd add a sprinkling of Cheddar to the filling instead. I used the pastry trimmings to make some cheese straws sprinkled with a few pumpkin and sunflower seeds before baking - mmm, they were pretty delicious straight from the oven and didn't last long.  I found this enamel tin in a local hardware shop - a bargain I thought at just £1.99 - and perfect for a chunky, rustic tart like this.

Makes one 23cm tart
Serves 4-6
Takes about 1 hour plus 30 mins to chill the pastry

Cheese Pastry:
200g plain flour
Large pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground pepper
100g butter
75g mature Cheddar, finely grated
1 egg, beaten
Filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil or rapeseed oil
4 good quality pork sausages
1 leek, sliced
1 medium courgette, halved lengthways and sliced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 eggs
150ml pot single cream

1 To make the pastry, place the flour in a bowl. Add the cayenne pepper and season with salt and pepper. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs then stir in the cheese. Mix the egg with 1 teaspoon cold water, add to the bowl and mix to form a dough, adding another teaspoon of water if the dough seems dry. Knead lightly then wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 mins.

2 While the pastry is chilling, heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the sausages for 10 mins. Push the sausages to one side of the pan, add the leek and courgette to the other side and cook for a further 10 mins until the sausages are cooked and the leeks and courgette are tender. Cut the sausages into chunky slices.

3 Heat the oven to 190C, Fan 170C, Gas 5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line a 23cm tart tin. Trim off the excess and re-roll trimmings for cheese straws or biscuits. Line the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and top with ceramic baking beans or dried beans and bake in the oven for 10 mins. Remove the paper and beans and cook for a further 5 mins.

4 Place the leeks, courgette and sausage in the pastry case with the cherry tomatoes. Beat the eggs with the cream, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and pour over the filling. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and just set.