Category Archives: Summer
Tart Art
I LOVE making tarts, savory or sweet. Certainly I make my share of quiches, but, honestly, I like anything in a pastry shell. My tart pan with its removable bottom is one piece of kitchen equipment I could never do without. An empty pastry shell is excellent vehicle for turning leftovers or random vegetables in the refrigerator into an elegant-looking meal.
My go-to pastry crust recipe comes from Mark Bittman. Last week, by way of David Lebovitz, I discovered another pastry crust that you must add to your repertoire. This one is a press-in crust made from MELTED butter. The technique is unusual but oh-so-easy. You melt butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt in the oven until the butter browns. Then, you stir in flour and press the dough into the pan. The baked crust is incredibly flaky. The only caveat is that David doesn’t recommend using this crust for a wet filling.
To test out the recipe, I made a beet green tart (sorry, no picture) and found myself falling in love with this crust. All week, I’ve been dreaming about other fillings to try. I was thinking about something with roasted zucchini, when the perfect inspiration came along.
I had all the required vegetables from my CSA share, so I made Ratatouille Tian (from the delightful Clothide of Chocolate and Zucchini’s new book). This mélange of eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and onions is gorgeous to behold. Howard, of course, doesn’t eat eggplant or zucchini, but we had friends coming for dinner, so I had people to share it with.
The tian made more than we could eat; more than half was leftover. For lunch, I packed the leftover tian into a pastry shell and topped it with crumbled goat cheese for a Ratatouille Tart. It was everything I hoped for.
What other summer fillings can you suggest I try?
Ratatouille Tart
Serves 4 to 6
Pastry shell, baked in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom (try this recipe)
3 to 4 cups ratatouille (from Ratatouille Tian or your favorite recipe)
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
Preheat the oven to 350F. Fill the pastry shell with ratatouille, as decoratively as possible. Scatter the crumbled goat cheese over the filling evenly.
Bake for 20 minutes, until filling is warm and cheese starts to brown.
Fairy Tale Eggplant: So tiny, aren’t they cute?
ffwd: dieter’s tartine
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie was barely a recipe. The selection was Dieter’s Tartine, an open-faced sandwich that Parisian women enjoy at the café next door to the famous Poilâne bakery.
I had no time for shopping this week, so took some liberties to work with what I had on-hand. For the bread, I used toasted a slice of the sourdough rye bread I usually have for breakfast. For the spread, I used goat cheese. I topped this with the recommended tomato and cucumber cubes, which were part of this week’s farm share, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Finally, I sprinkled it all with herbes de Provence.
I did not have this for lunch, but rather for breakfast. Actually, my typical breakfast is toast with cheese, often goat cheese, so the fresh summery salad on top was an interesting addition to something I eat all the time.
The tartine wasn’t spectacular, but it was good. It would never satisfy me for lunch, but for breakfast, I enjoyed it.
At some point, I’ll might try this with fromage blanc, once I find some, because I’ve never tried that kind of cheese before. I won’t even try to make my own substitution because I cannot bear the sight of cottage cheese. The thought of actually ingesting it would push me over the edge.
To see what the other creative Doristas’ did with their tartines, check out there links here. You can always find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
A Plateful of Happiness 