Goat's cheese and Greek yoghurt tart with Greek wild thyme honey and a pistachio crust

Fluffy cheese and yoghurt cream, biscuit-like crust, sticky, luscious honey and crunchy pistachio crumbs

Published originally on my blog on 30 September 2010

Listen, I know that a chocolate tart sounds tempting but this tart is better, believe me. It's more complex than a chocolate tart, creamier, more refreshing, more gutsy. Even though this is not a Greek recipe, it contains ingredients that are often used in Greek desserts—goat's cheese, Greek yoghurt, Greek thyme honey, pistachios—and it actually reminds me of the classic Greek treat of simple strained yoghurt dressed with lots of honey and sprinkled with chopped walnuts.

Greek strained yoghurt is known everywhere for its creaminess and its exquisite quality and Greek honey has been valued since ancient times both as food and as a medicinal source. The ancient Greeks considered honey to be a natural, healthy and essential part of their everyday diet rather than a supplement, and it was eaten on its own or added to different kinds of sauces. There are innumerable references to honey in ancient Greek historical and philosophical texts such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the "Deipnosofists" by Athenaeus and texts by Plato and Aristotle. According to Greek mythology, honey was the nectar of the gods and Dias (Zeus) was raised on honey.

Greek honey is considered to be one of the greatest in the world largely due to the rich variety of fragrant, indigenous flowers of the Greek countryside and mountains, and the unlimited supply of sunshine. The biodiversity of the Greek countryside contributes to the fact that there are multiple types of honey, each with its own particular properties and flavor. Greek honeybees devour the nectar from the fragrant oregano and rosemary plants, from chestnut trees and the delicate orange and jasmine blossoms, and of course from wild thyme flowers, making wild thyme honey unique to Greece.

Greek wild thyme honey, with the finest one being from the island of Kythera, is intensely aromatic, it has a light golden color and an incomparable rich and deep flavor that can't be described. It's something you have to taste. When some friends from Holland tried the thyme honey I have brought from Greece, they couldn't believe that honey could have such an extraordinary taste.

The same thing can be said about the Greek pistachios or as we call them in Greece "Fystikia Aeginis", which means nuts from the island of Aegina. Aegina is a beautiful, green island located very close to Athens where pistachios have been cultivated since the 1860s. "Aegina pistachio" is the official name of this pistachio variety which is also called "kilarati" meaning round. I'm always amazed by the sight of the fresh pistachios hanging from the trees in Aegina—they develop such a gorgeous red-pink color where the sun hits them.

Now, this tart over here with all these ingredients can only taste fantastic, don't you think? It has a honeyed sweetness and an earthiness from the thyme as well as a slight tanginess from the yoghurt and goat's cheese, with the acidity of the lime balancing the buttery and nutty flavor of the pistachio crust. This tart is all about textures—the fluffy cheese-yoghurt cream, the biscuit-like crust, the sticky, luscious honey and the crunchy pistachio crumbs on top. All that in one bite. And you'd think that they would constitute a heavy result but nothing can be further from the truth. It is light, refreshing, totally delicious and something that you have to make immediately.

Goat's Cheese and Greek Yoghurt Tart with Thyme Honey and a Pistachio Crust

The Greek fresh soft goat's cheese called Manouri (produced traditionally in central and west Macedonia and Thessaly in northern Greece and the island of Crete) with its silky smooth texture and milky, slightly citrusy flavor, is one of the best choices for this tart. If you can't find it, a great substitute would be a French chevre (homemade!) or any other high-quality soft goat's cheese.

You can play around a lot with the flavors of this tart. You can use orange blossom honey instead of Greek thyme honey which will give a slightly different flavor to the dessert.
You can use lemon juice and zest instead of lime. Lemon has a milder flavor than lime and this will be reflected on the overall taste of the tart.
You can use walnuts or pecans instead of pistachios for the crust.
(Read this on how to store nuts properly)