A Strawberry Tart

It's Friday which means that dear friend Michael at Designs by Gollum is hosting "Foodie Friday". It's always a chance to find new recipes and there are many yummy posts! So please visit.

It's not quite May but strawberries abound in the market. Not prairie strawberries but California ones. The California ones seem to be a bit bigger than the ones grown on the prairie. And these early berries make a great strawberry tart.
Baked in my rectangular tart pan with the strawberries lined up like soldiers (which makes for easy cutting) and the whole topped with the glaze. It's not a new recipe but an old one -- one from the 60's where it was called baked in a round pie shell, called strawberry pie and was sold at lunch counters only at strawberry time.
Cut into slices and topped with a strawberry, it makes an elegant dessert. My Wedgwood Asiatic Pheasant makes a great plate for the tart -- the blue and white make the red of the strawberries seem redder.
To gild the lily a bit, a rose geranium leaf instead of the strawberry cap.

Whether you bake it in a pie shell or a tart shell (either round or rectangular or even square) it's a good dessert and so perfect for strawberry time!

Strawberry Tart

1 cup strawberries, cut up
3 T. cornstarch
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
red food color

Prebaked pie or tart shell (your favorite recipe or a refrigerated one)

Fresh whole strawberries (enough to fill your shell -- you can put them in helter skelter or put all of them cap side down, pointy side up in a pretty design if you wish).

Mix cornstarch and sugar and stir to mix. Add water and mix until smooth. Add strawberries and cook over medium heat until mixture is thick. Add food color -- a few drops so the glaze is strawberry red. Pour glaze over berries in pie shell. Top with whipped cream if you desire.