Recipe: Phyllo Tart with Fruit Salpicon

Phyllo Tart with Fruit Salpicon
Source: chef and author Jacques Pepin/1998

1/3 cup apricot preserves, best possible quality
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
12 ounces large damson or burbank plums (about 3), peeled if the skin is tough, pitted, and the flesh cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup blueberries
4 sheets (14 by 18 inches) thawed phyllo dough (about 3 ounces total), rolled together into a scroll and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips (about 3 cups shredded phyllo)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons sugar
4 small sprigs fresh mint, or strips of lemon zest, for garnish

Mix the apricot preserves and lemon juice together in a bowl large enough to accommodate all the fruit. Add the diced plums and blueberries and mix well. Cover and place in a cool place (not the refrigerator) until serving time.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll the sheets of phyllo together into a scroll, and cut them crosswise into 1/4-inch strips. (You should have about 3 cups of shredded phyllo.)

Place the shredded phyllo dough on a nonstick cookie sheet. Add the butter, oil and sugar and mix gently until all the strands of dough are coated with the fat and sugar. Gather up the phyllo strips and press them into an 8-inch tart pan or ring set on a cookie sheet.

Bake the phyllo shell in the 350-degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until nicely browned and crisp. Cool the crust on a rack in the tart shell, then transfer it to a serving platter.

At serving time, spoon the salpicon of fruit on top of the phyllo crust, decorate the dessert with the mint sprigs or lemon zest and cut it into slices at the table. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.