Tomato Tart with Puff Pastry

 

This tart is a great way to use some of the beautiful and colourful heirloom tomatoes that you grow in your garden. And it uses store-bought puff pastry because it’s just so easy. 

** Making this doesn’t take a lot of time but you do have to do a couple of steps in advance to make sure your tart pastry isn’t soggy, so please read the instructions through in advance. **

Yield: Lunch for 4, appetizer for more

Ingredients:

4-5 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

7-10 cherry tomatoes, sliced

1-2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (any combo: thyme, basil, tarragon, parsley, oregano etc but must be fresh)

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp butter

3 tsp milk

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (defrosted overnight in fridge)

1 ½ cups grated sharp cheese (gruyere is best)

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

Method: 

Defrost pastry overnight in the fridge. **

Thinly slice tomatoes and spread out in a single layer on a cutting board or two. Cover with paper towel to absorb the liquid. You will probably have to do this twice at least so give it a couple of hours. Having dry-ish tomatoes means your tart pastry won’t be soggy. **

Preheat oven to 400 F

Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unroll the defrosted pastry on to the parchment and stretch it out a little bit.  With a sharp knife, score the pastry ½” or 1.5 cm inside the edge all the way around, making sure you don’t cut through the pastry.

Inside the score line, poke the pastry all over with a fork. Cover the inside area with a thin layer of Dijon mustard.

Melt the butter in a small bowl and add the milk. Brush the mixture over the scored edge of the pastry. This will help it to brown up a bit. Put the prepared pastry into the over to brown for about 15 minutes.

Remove pastry from the oven and press down with a fork any of the inside area that is puffy.

Spread cheese in thin layer across the bottom of the pastry. Then lay the tomatoes in a single layer (make it pretty!) from edge to edge on the inside section of the pastry.

Sprinkle with a bit of salt and the chopped herbs. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and fresh ground pepper if you like.

Put that gorgeous baby in to the oven for about 25 minutes (don’t let the crust get too brown on the edges) et voila!

Remove from the over and let cool. This tart is delicious both warm and at room temperature so it can be made a few hours ahead.

 

 

  

 ©️ Gail J. Cohen 2021

 

Caramelized Onion & Tomato Pie

This is a great summer brunch dish and also an excellent way to use some of the beautiful tomatoes that you’ve grown in your garden or got at the local market. Serve with a fresh salad.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2-3 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

6 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters

1 medium onion thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic finely sliced

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (defrosted)

1.5 cups grated gouda

1 egg, beaten

A few sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp balsamic vinegar (the more aged/thick the better)

1 tbsp of butter

Flour for dusting

Method:

Put the sliced and cut tomatoes onto a few sheets of paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt. This will help to draw the liquid out and make your pie more crispy.

Heat the butter in a medium sized frying pan and saute the onions for about 15 minutes on medium. Sprinkle a bit of salt while they’re cooking and stir frequently. They should get all dark and soft and caramelized. Once they are just about ready, toss in the garlic and saute for a minute or so. You don’t want the garlic to burn as it’ll get very bitter. Take off the heat and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 425F and line a baking pan or pizza pan with parchment paper.

Dust your counter or board in preparation for the pastry. Take your now-defrosted puff pastry (or make it if you have nothing but time on your hands!) and roll it out a few times just to make it a bit thinner than it is out of the package.

A whole piece of puff pastry is probably too big so maybe cut a quarter off the end and use that to make a few either sweet or savoury turnover. (I made swiss chard and goat cheese ones).

Roll the pastry onto your roller and then unroll it nicely onto the parchment paper covered pan. Prick the pastry a bit with a fork.

Take your now cool onions and spread them on the pastry. Leave a bit of an edge because you’re going to fold the edge over for max prettiness.

Cover the onions with a layer of cheese. Then artfully place the sliced tomatoes on top of the cheese. Make a frame around the edge of the onion/cheese/tomatoes with the little wedges of cherry tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the top of it all.

Now gently fold the extra pastry over the top. It will form a frame around the edge (whether you do it as a rectangle or a circle). Lastly, give a generous egg wash all around the pastry on the top.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the pastry is a nice darkish brown. If there’s a little too much liquid still in your tomatoes once the pastry is done, you can just daub it with a bit of paper towel once you take it out the oven.

Let it cool for a few minutes, top with some fresh basil, then serve and enjoy.

© 2020 Gail J Cohen

Vegan basil hemp pesto

I've been cooking but not writing about it much lately. Trying to get back on track. The fall harvest is a great time to do it! Here's one for the gardeners (and the vegans).

If you're like me, you tend to grow basil in your garden in the summer and there's only so much of it you can use before the frost get it. Pesto is one of the greatest ways to use up large amounts of the fresh stuff. And making it takes hardly any time at all.

And this recipe mixes it with one of my favourite (and local!) seeds: hemp, which have an extraordinary nutty flavour that is enhanced by toasting the seeds before making the mixture. Add a little hemp oil to ratchet up that nuttiness. The fresh parsley, which is likely also in your garden, adds a bit of herby lightness.

Yield:  1.5 cups

Ingredients

1/2 cup hemp seeds

3 loosely packed cups of fresh basil leaves

1 sprig fresh Italian parsley

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp cold pressed hemp oil

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp salt

fresh ground pepper

Toast the hemp seeds in a non-stick pan on medium heat. It will seem like it takes a while but keep your eyes on it at all times because the seeds will go from not toasted to burnt in about 30 seconds. The toasting shouldn't take more than about 5-6 minutes depending on the pan you're using. Cool before making the pesto.

Clean the basil and parsley, making sure it's mostly dry before continuing on.

Add all the ingredients into a food processor. Blend for about a minute making sure the garlic is all chopped and it is quite smooth and creamy. Check the seasonings and voila. 

Use it on pasta, add cream/cream substitute if you want to make a creamy sauce, use it dressing for salads, etc.  It'll keep in the fridge for about a week but you can also freeze it in ice cube trays and save it for later when you're yearning for some garden freshness in the middle of winter.

© Gail J. Cohen 2017