Tomato tart with goat's cheese recipe
This colourful Mediterranean dish is ideal for those outdoor summer lunches. Make sure you choose a goats' cheese you love. One I really enjoy is Sainte-Maure de Touraine, a chèvre from the Loire region – it is well-balanced, smooth, slightly salty and has a lovely, nutty aroma. Tomatoes are a personal thing, too – choose the variety that really zings for you. For the topping you can use your own homemade, oven-dried tomatoes, or, if you are short on time, sun-dried tomatoes from a jar.
Ingredients
- 1 amount of butter, for greasing
- 250 g ready-made puff pastry
- 1 plain flour, for dusting
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, plus extra to serve
- 12 sun-dried tomatoes from a jar, drained
- 85 g goats' cheese, sliced
- 100 g rocket leaves, to serve
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil, to serve
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 0.5 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 1 thyme sprig
- 1 tbsp reduced balsamic vinegar
Details
- Cuisine: French
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 70 mins
- Cooking Time: 50 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- To make the tomato base, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, partially covered, for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the tomato, thyme and the remaining olive oil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 35-40 minutes, stirring often to avoid browning or burning the tomato. If the mixture gets too dry, add a few tablespoons of water. Stir in the reduced balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and grease a 20cm/8in tart tin with butter. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until it is about 3mm/1/ 8 in thick and 25cm/10in in diameter.
- Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to stretch it. Press down gently to push out any bubbles and roll the rolling pin along the top edge of the tin to trim off the excess pastry. Prick the base with a fork and chill for 25-30 minutes. This will prevent the pastry from shrinking during cooking.
- Place the tart tin on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and do not turn the oven off.
- Brush the pastry with the balsamic vinegar and then return it to the oven for a further 3 minutes. The vinegar will seal the top of the pastry and ensure that your tart is crunchy. Be careful not to overcook it or it will become dry and bitter.
- To assemble the tart, remove the thyme sprig from the tomato base and spread the base over the pastry. Arrange the sun-dried tomatoes and goats' cheese on top and season with salt and pepper.
- Place the tart in the oven and bake for 3-4 minutes until the cheese starts to melt, but don't allow it to melt completely. If you want, you can flash it for 2 minutes under a grill, preheated to high, to give it a lovely colour.
Extracted from French Brasserie Cookbook by Daniel Galmiche text © 2011, published by Duncan Baird Publishers, London