Tomato tart season!

I've got this cookbook, that I love, from Ottolenghi, the pastry/catering shop around the corner from my grandfather's place in London.  I haven't cooked my way through it yet, but I'm slowly attempting to.  Anyway, in a nod to my easily distractible nature, I discovered that Yotam Ottolenghi has a blog, on the guardian.co.uk website, and I copied down a bunch of links to recipes I wanted to try.  I want to try them all!!  Unfortunately, though his food is delicious, his recipe-writing occasionally leaves something to be desired, and if you blindly follow the recipe and don't use your brain, you end up with a flop.  

This happened to me recently, with his tomato and almond tart.  In theory, this should have been amazing.  All the pieces are things I love to eat - fresh tomatoes, puff pastry, almond frangipane - but it didn't work that well all together.  This is as much my fault, since I should have noticed that all the stuff on top of the puff pastry was going to weigh it down too much to puff.  Alas and alack, I didn't notice, and this rich tart wasn't everything it could be.  Don't worry, though!  I'm not just reviewing a bad recipe, I'm posting a tomato tart recipe that totally worked, and is awesome, after the flop!  

The Ottolenghi tart promised to be a most luscious layer of rich, nutty sweetness, after the almond paste soaked up the juice of the tomatoes.  cool, that sounds tasty.  I suppose an option would be to make 1/4 of the amount of almond stuff called for, so it's thinner on the puff pastry, and to slice the tomatoes way, way, waaaay thinner.  Here's the link to the recipe:

link

The end result, unfortunately, revolved around the fact that there was too much stuff on the puff pastry.  It took 40 minutes to cook, rather than 25, and even then wasn't fully puffed.  It was also way too buttery - the whole thing just oozed out grease, constantly.  I find that kind of gross.  The overall tart was just very heavy tasting, and not a great use of puff pastry.  A pie dough would have stood up better to that sort of abuse.

With that in mind, I'd say my next tomato tart was a ringing success!  It didn't get a great Ed-rating, because he didn't try it when it was fresh, and the tomato juices had soaked into the pie crust of the leftover piece and made it all soggy, but it also didn't get a bad Ed-rating.  I liked this tart because I thought the ricotta filling did a nice job making the whole thing taste a little heartier and goopier, more like a pizza really.  Because pizza is awesome.  I recommend making this version, especially if your garden is still overflowing with tomatoes.  It's been a great way to use up our landlords' tomatoes… 

Alex's vastly improved tomato tart

1 shell of pie crust, pre-baked

2-3 *good* tomatoes (not the mealy supermarket kind.  this tart relies on good tomatoes), sliced to <1 p="p" thick="thick">

~1/2C caramelized onions

~1/2C ricotta cheese

~1/2C chopped basil

1 egg

salt and pepper, to taste

~1/4C grated hard cheese (pecorino or parmesan)

1 can of anchovies, optional

If you haven't got caramelized onions hanging about, cut an onion in half from end to end, and then slice off some half-rings from that, so you end up with long pieces.  Pan fry those for 20-30min on medium-low in some olive oil, until they're just beyond golden brown, but not yet burned.  They should taste sweet.  and delicious.

To make the ricotta filling, mix up the basil and ricotta and hard grated cheese and some salt and pepper, and taste.  Season with more salt or pepper however you like it.  Then add the egg, and beat until everything is of one mixture.

Spread the filling over the pie crust.  

Spread around the caramelized onions.

Lay the tomatoes out around the pie.  Maybe sprinkle with a little more grated cheese and a dash of salt.

Bake for 20min at ~350F. 

 Enjoy!