No Fuss Fruit Tart No Cream Cheese

Asked by aqsa rafiq. Answered on 3rd February 2014

Full question

I would like to make the No-Fuss Fruit Tart however cream cheese is not available in my local store. Is there an alternative? Thank you

Our answer

Nigella's No-Fuss Fruit Tart (from Kitchen and on the Nigella website) is a cheesecake-type base made from crushed digestive biscuits and filled with a mixture of cream cheese and lemon curd. If you cannot find cream cheese then you could use mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese, which will be slightly richer. Another alternative filling could be whipped cream - you can fold some lemon curd through the cream after it has been whipped or you could spread the lemon curd on the tart base and then put the whipped cream on top. Ricotta cheese has a granier texture than mascarpone and cream cheese but if you like ricotta then you could possibly use this instead.

If you live in the US then you could also use an instant or cooked vanilla pudding filling (following a recipe or the instructions on the pudding packaging for a firmer/pie set) with the lemon curd spread on the base of the tart crust.

Cream cheese should be available in most supermarkets. In the UK it may also be labelled as "soft white cheese".