me and my good pal, Beth, have an everlasting love for goat cheese. any recipe including or evolving around goat cheese captures our attention and we immediately feel the urge to make it. so yesterday on a windy spring afternoon, we came across David Levobitz' recipe for a French Tomato Tart. we made some minor alternations to make it our own but the finished product was pretty dang close.
the recipe
preheat oven to 425F
tart filling
small amount of dijon mustard
4-5 roma tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
a handful of chopped fresh herbs (such as thyme, chives, rosemary, basil)
8 ounces (250g) fresh goat cheese
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
tart dough
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cups unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2-3 tablespoons cold water
1. make the dough by mixing the flour and salt in a bowl. add the butter and use your hands, or a pastry blender, to break in the butter until the mixture has a crumbly texture.
2. in a small bowl, mix the egg with 2 tablespoons of the water. make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the beaten egg mixture, stirring the mixture until the dough hold together. if it's not coming together easily, add the additional tablespoon of cold water.
3. gather the dough into a ball and roll it on a lightly floured surface, adding additional flour only as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the counter.
4. if you're using a tart pan: roll the dough out large enough so that it will cover the bottom of the pan and go up the sides.
[if you're going free form, like we did: roll dough out to about 14 inches across, transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. note: when adding the filling, leave about a 2 inch border to allow for a rolled up edge.]
5. spread an even layer of mustard over the tart dough and let sit for a few minutes to dry out.
6. slice tomatoes, arranging them over the mustard in a single layer. drizzle olive oil over tomatoes.
7. sprinkle chopped fresh herbs [we just used basil, another favourite of ours], arrange goat cheese slices/crumbles on top, and drizzle desired amount of honey to finish off. [we used 1 tablespoon and talked about using a bit less the next time. it all depends on how much sweetness you would like!]
8. bake the tart for 30 minutes or so, until the dough is cooked, the tomatoes are tender, and the cheese is nicely browned. [we had the oven on convection and took our masterpiece out just over 20 minutes.]
9. take out of oven and let sit for 5 minutes, allowing ingredients to set and cool down.
VOILA!
lets be honest here, Beth and I have made many things together... and we've definitely have had failed experiences. but this tart is one of success and heavenly flavour! Beth has to be given credit for the buttery yet flakey crust; the foundation of an any thing but mediocre tart. it's amazing how raw, fresh ingredients can be so compatible. whether its when the tart tomato hits the back of your tongue or when the sweetness of the drizzled over honey is tasted or when those are offset by richness of the savoured goat cheese, this warm and savoury tart is going to hit the spot at one point in time and you're going to want to make it again and again and again.
hope you get a chance to make this soon and devour it in a short amount of time like beth and I did!
much love (and a happy stomach),
emily
x
