Strawberry rhubarb pie and strawberry shortcake. These are the typical strawberry go-tos when the season arrives. But really, there's so much more you can do with this extremely healthy and so-delicious fruit.

First of all, let's talk about the health benefits of strawberries. These potent little packages protect your heart, increase HDL (good) cholesterol, lower your blood pressure, and guard against cancer. Packed with fiber, particularly high levels of antioxidants known as polyphenols, strawberries are a sodium-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, low-calorie food.

And here's a fun fact to know and tell at the dinner table: Besides all the other vitamins they contain, just one cup of strawberries has more vitamin C than an orange!

But maybe best of all, they're LOW on the glycemic index, meaning if you have blood sugar issues, you can enjoy this fruit, worry-free. The glycemic index, simply put, is a measure of how quickly a food causes our blood sugar levels to rise. The measure ranks food on a scale of 0 to 100. Foods with a high glycemic index, or GI, are quickly digested and absorbed, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar.

It just so happens, happily, that all berries have the lowest glycemic load. They're some of the slowest foods to be digested and absorbed, thus causing a slow rise in blood sugar. So load up!

With health benefits established, let's move to another delicious way to use this beautiful fruit (besides the aforementioned pie and shortcake). Strawberries, visually lovely with no adornments, make a stunning tart.

And I found a terrific recipe for strawberry tart in Yossy Arefi's, SWEETER OFF THE VINE, This gorgeous tart is adapted from "Sweeter Off the Vine," by Yossy Arefi, a cookbook of fruit desserts for every season (which retails for about $30 but is around $8 at www.abebooks.com).

A tart is an ideal vehicle for the ripest strawberries at the height of the season. This dessert makes more of a splash than just serving berries and cream, but it still has that simple charm.

I found the only tricky part with this recipe was the crust, which tended to crack as I transferred it to a serving board. But if that happens for you, don't despair. This dessert is actually meant to be effortlessly loose and casual, so you can cover the damage with swirls of mascarpone and a blanket of berries. How about that for accommodating?

One other thought on this yummy tart: While the recipe calls for rye flour as part of the crust, you can easily substitute any whole grain flour-even ground oats if you like. And the original recipe calls for 9 tablespoons of unsalted butter and I wondered if that was why my crust tended to crack when transferring.

So the second time I made it, I increased the butter to 10 to 12 tablespoons (I probably used 12). This solved the cracking crust issue. But if you'd prefer a lower-fat dessert, then stick with the 9 tablespoons because with this amount the crust does work OK.

Give this recipe a try this season and see if you don't agree that it's another delicious way to use your strawberries!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

Prep time:
Cook time:
Yield:

Serving size: 1
Calories per serving: 782.121

Ingredients:

CRUST
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup rye flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
10 to 12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large egg lightly beaten, for egg wash
TART
1 1/4 cups mascarpone at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 pound sweet, fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons high-quality strawberry jam


Directions:

Step 1: Prepare the crust: Whisk the flours and salt together in a large bowl. Combine apple cider vinegar with 5 tablespoons ice water.
Step 2: Working quickly, add butter to the flour mixture and toss to coat. Use your fingers or the palms of your hands to press each cube of butter into the flour, ensuring that each butter piece gets coated, until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-size lumps. If at any time the butter seems warm or soft, briefly refrigerate the bowl. Alternatively, you can pulse the butter and flour together in a food processor.
Step 3: Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the cold vinegar-water mixture over the flour mixture. Use a gentle hand or wooden spoon to stir the water into the flour until just combined. If using a food processor, pulse a few more times, or until the dough begins to come together. If the dough seems dry, add more of the cold vinegar-water mixture, a couple of teaspoons at a time. You have added enough water when you can pick up a handful of the dough and easily squeeze it together without it falling apart.
Step 4: Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. (Dough keeps for up to 3 months in the freezer wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil. Thaw in refrigerator before using.)
Step 5: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400 degrees.
Step 6: On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll out the pie crust into an oval about 15 x 6 inches and just under 1/4-inch thick. Use a paring knife or pastry cutter to trim any rough edges and move the parchment paper and crust to a baking sheet, preferably rimless. Dock the crust with a fork to prevent it from puffing up too much in the oven. Brush the surface of the crust from edge to edge with the egg wash.
Step 7: Bake until crust is deep golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Check on the crust halfway through baking; if any bubbles have appeared, use a spatula to press them flat. Cool the crust completely on the pan.
Step 8: Prepare the tart: While the crust is cooling, combine mascarpone and 2 tablespoons sugar. Hull the strawberries and cut them into 1/4-inch slices.
Step 9: Carefully slide the cooled crust off the baking sheet onto a serving platter or board. Spread mascarpone over the top in an even layer, dot with jam, then arrange sliced strawberries in a single, slightly overlapping layer in a decorative pattern. Sprinkle the tart with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. (Omit this final sprinkling if your strawberries are particularly sweet.) Slice and serve immediately.

Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.