Summer Tomato Tart With Herbs & Zucchini is the perfect dish for those lazy summer days, or for when you come back home after a short vacation and there’s not much in the fridge, expect some random ingredients, which luckily made up a delicious tart.
As you already know me, I always go for the most versatile dish. I like food that gives you the option to play around with the ingredients or change them if you feel like eating one in particular.
Basically, this tomato tart was made with was at hand for me that day. A bunch of colourful summer tomatoes, zucchini, fresh fennel, a bunch of herbs, eggs and greek yogurt.
The dough is a simple one, a mixture of cold butter, water, flour and salt.
To be honest this one works for me in every situation, either it’s a galette, a savoury pie or a tart, the dough has the same ingredients, with the 1:2 ratio of butter to flour. Of curse, if I’m making a sweet tart, I will reduce the amount of salt and add a bit of sugar in it.
Don’t judge this tomato tart by the way I pierced the dough 🙂 This could definitely be a saying, but if you are wondering why I did that I’ll explain it. In order to avoid a soggy tart in the end, I blind baked the dough for 15 in the oven.
The small wholes helped the steam escape, preventing the crust from puffing up.
So what is blind baking?
For sure this has nothing to do with you being blindfolded while cooking the dough 🙂
The process is really nothing more than leaving the pie/tart crust bake on it’s own for a while (usually 15 mins) in the oven, before adding the filling.
Bling baking is required when you are making a tart with a liquid or unbaked filling. I’m using a mixture of eggs and yogurt as a filing, so this might keep the bottom crust soggy while baking the tart.
The blind baking process will help your tart crust remain firm and have a crispy consistency at the end.
Choose to make this delicious tomato tart with seasonal ingredients, grab a bunch of summer herbs from your garden, and let the flavours do their thing. You’ll just love the end result.
I’ll leave you now with the recipe.
Don’t forget to drop me a comment if you try out this recipe, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Love,
Cori
Summer Tomato Tart With Zucchini & Herbs
Summer Tomato Tart With Herbs & Zucchini is the perfect dish for those lazy summer days
Ingredients
- 250g flour + more for dusting
- 125g cold butter (I used 82% fat butter)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 1/2 tbsp cold water (the amount will vary based on the type of flour you use)
- 4-5 tomatoes
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbsp greek yogurt
- 1 zucchini
- 1/2 fennel bulb
- 1 +1/2 tbsp chopped rosemary and thyme
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 tbsp grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper freshly grated
Instructions
Prepare the dough: in a medium sized bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the diced butter straight from the fridge, and mix it with the tip of your fingers until all resembles to coarse bread crumbs.
Add the ice cold water, 1 tablespoon at the time, until the dough holds together. If it's too dry, add a bit more water, and try to work it as little as possible, not to warm up the ingredients. It's ok if the dough is still a bit crumbly.
Gather the dough into a thick disk and after you wrap it in plastic foil and refrigerate it for at least 30 mins.
Preheat a cast iron skillet with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
Peel and cut the zucchini in thin slices. Half the fennel bulb removing the hard core and fronds, and then cut it in thin slices resembling the onion you would use for your salad.
Cook the zucchini and fennel for about 10 minutes, until they become golden brown. Season them with salt and pepper at the end, to prevent the zucchini from becoming watery.
Beat the eggs, add the greek yogurt, nutmeg, herbs and mix of cooked zucchini and fennel. Mix well and season with a bit of salt. Not too much, the other ingredients already have some more. Set aside.
Take the dough out from the fridge and let it warm up for 5-7 mins until you start rolling it.
Sprinkle the work surface and your rolling pin with a bit of flour. Start rolling the dough until it reaches a disk of about 26 -28 cm in diameter. For this tart I used a cast iron skillet with 26cm in diameter and 5cm in height. Trim the edges of the dough to fit the exact size and walls of your pan.
Preheat the oven a 180C.
Pierce the dough with the fork from place to place, and blind bake the crust for 15 min. At the end of the blind baking time, you should have a firm crust and slightly golden on the edges.
Add the egg filling and round slice your tomatoes. Add them on top until it coves the surface of the tart. It's ok if they overlap a bit. Sprinkle some fresh thyme leaves, a few turns of salt and pepper and the remaining olive oil. Bake at 180C for about 45-50 min, or until the crust becomes golden and the tomatoes start to char on the edges.
Serve at room temperature or cold, with your favourite white wine.
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