Many years ago I planted what a kind nursery man told me was a peach tree: it turned out to be an almond tree that bore no almonds. Next I inherited some raspberry canes and redcurrant bushes, which I cleaned up and pruned, and waited for them to bear fruit. They were stripped bare while still slightly unripe by persons unknown, just before I got to them myself. Then, shortly after planting a gooseberry bush, I moved house. It is fortunate that life carved out a career for me as a cook rather than as a fruit producer.

Yet I keep meaning to plant another gooseberry bush – the one I planted years ago was a “Leveller” that should bear huge, sweet fruit that blush a lovely pinky purple when ripe. Despite their slightly hairy skin, they are quite luscious and good baked in a tart with frangipane. I believe these dessert gooseberries are almost commercially extinct – apart from a few grown in the Netherlands.

The real tragedy, though, is the fate of the cooking gooseberry. English summer cooking is almost defined by the tartness and flavour of gooseberry fool or mackerel with gooseberry sauce. Every year I write about this lovely fruit, and yet every year they get harder and harder to find. My greengrocer has even planted a bush in an effort to assuage my demands. Sometimes I question this new food culture of ours: my local supermarket sells quinoa and Thai basil – but I can’t get a gooseberry for love nor money.

So whether you pick your own or find a good farm shop, buy plenty of this precious fruit. Make a purée as below but omit the sugar and keep it in the fridge. Use it to make gooseberry fool, a sauce for mackerel or salmon or this delicious summery tart. Alternatively, plant a bush and wait three years.

Rowley Leigh is the chef at Le Café Anglais
rowley.leigh@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/leigh

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Gooseberry custard tart

The pastry
Ingredients
140g flour
30g icing sugar
75g chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 egg yolks

Method
●Sift the flour and sugar together. In a food processor or by hand, blend the butter with the flour until you have a texture similar to fine breadcrumbs. Add one egg yolk and mix until the ingredients more or less come together. If the pastry looks too dry, add a tiny splash of milk or water. Shape into a ball, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for a minimum of an hour.
●When you are ready, grate the pastry (it can be quite hard) on a coarse grater and press it evenly around the edges and base of the tart tin to a thickness of 3-5mm. Prick the base and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 220°C, 425°F, mark 7.
●Bake the tart shell in the top shelf of the oven for 10-15 minutes until light brown. Mix the remaining egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk. Remove the tart shell from the oven and immediately brush it with the egg yolk mixture.

The tart
Ingredients
1kg gooseberries
200g sugar
4 egg yolks + 3 whole eggs
200ml double cream

Method
●Wash the gooseberries, then top and tail them with a sharp pair of scissors. Put into a saucepan with 200ml of water and half the sugar. Place on the heat and bring to a gentle simmer and stew the gooseberries until they are soft and beginning to break up. Remove from the heat and then sieve through a mouli-légumes to give a smooth purée.
If you don’t have a mouli-légumes, make a rough purée in a blender or food processor, using short pulses and then pass through a sieve. Some people prefer a coarse pulp, leaving the seeds in: this is traditional and interesting, but I prefer the “velvet glove” principle of a completely smooth purée.
●Whisk together the sugar, egg yolks, whole eggs and cream. Fold in the cooled – it can still be warm – gooseberry purée and pour this mixture into the cooled tart shell. Return the tart to the oven and bake at 180°c, 350°F, mark 4 for 25 minutes or until set. Leave to cool before serving