Tomato Tart

Woot! Another recipe down! This one I was much more happy with, surprisingly! I usually make sweet dishes, since the majority of baking is sweet, but this one is a savory dish. A delicious savory dish I might add, even if it sounds a bit weird by the name. J It’s exactly what it sounds like, a tomato tart. You put roasted garlic, tomatoes, cheese, and fresh basil sprinkled on top in a tart crust. Yum!

So first of all, I had to roast my garlic. This was a first. I actually didn’t even know that a head of garlic was the WHOLE thing, ALL the cloves, which is what it called for. I know! A whole head of garlic! I thought this was a lot, but since it is roasted, it takes on a much more milder flavor than the intense flavor of fresh garlic.

I pulled apart my cloves of garlic, leaving on the skins, and placed them on a piece of foil. I drizzled them with olive oil and put them in the oven at 350˚ for about 30 minutes, 15 minutes less than the recipe called for. Which even then I think was a bit much. Some of the smaller cloves were a bit singed on one side. Not too bad for my first time roasting garlic though!

While the garlic was roasting in the oven (which is one of the MOST amazing smells in the world!) I made my tart dough. I used Martha’s recipe this time, because the “Paté Brisee” recipe I had was for sweet tarts. Again, I wanted to make my dough a bit healthier, so I added whole-wheat flour instead of white flour. I know…you would think I would have learned my lesson with my pie dough, but I thought this is tart dough, it’s different, I’ll give it another chance. I didn’t chill it for very long, only about 10 minutes, because I was using my fresh butter again.

I sliced my fresh tomatoes (courtesy of Miranda’s garden J) getting ready to assemble my tart. The recipe called for fontina cheese, which I had never heard of…btw, so I asked my cook boyfriend, Matt, what kind of cheese it was, and if I could switch it with mozzarella. This was a good idea, because I found out at the store that it would have cost me about four dollars extra for fewer ounces for the fontina than it would for more ounces of the mozzarella. So..being the poor college student that I am, I bought the on-sale mozzarella. J

I rolled out my tart dough and pressed it into my tart pan (which I had never used, even though I bought it back in April!). Once my garlic was roasted I took the cloves out of their skins and mashed them with a fork. I smeared the mashed garlic on the bottom of my tart crust, along with a sprinkling of cheese. Then I arranged my tomatoes in a circular formation from the edge in, along with salt and pepper. I sprinkled more cheese on top of that – much more than the recipe called for, because I’m a cheese fiend. I also drizzled it with some roasted red pepper dressing that Matt made, instead of the olive oil the recipe called for. I also sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top as well, because I like a little spice. J Into the oven it went.

Mmm…now this smelled amazing when it was baking. You can’t even imagine! If I could put a scratch and sniff button on here I would! After about a half an hour it was done. I pulled it out, and let it cool a little bit before I sprinkled fresh basil and some parmesan cheese.

It was amazing! I ate 3 slices on my own! Actually I ate nearly the whole tart on my own in a matter of a few days. J It was so good though. And the crust with the whole-wheat flour worked out great! It was crispy and salty and yummy. I will definitely be making this again! I thought it might be good to add some spinach next time. The best part was that it was super easy! I came home after being on campus for 9 hours and I’m usually not in the mood to cook, but this was so simple and delicious, plus I had leftovers for the rest of the week. J

I do have to say though, the crust is definitely not as good after being reheated in the microwave, but I was impressed with how well it did hold up. You could reheat it in the oven at 300˚ and it would probably be much better. I just didn’t want to heat up my whole house for a slice of tart. J