Tomato Sauce Tart

As you can imagine, when I was a pastry student, we ate plenty of sweets. I won't go so far as to say that we got sick of them, but when our teacher pulled out this recipe and said we were making a tomato tart, we were pretty damn excited. My guess is the oompa loompas would feel the same way if Willy Wonka threw them a pizza party.

I decided to go ahead and rename this a tomato sauce tart because you're basically making a tomato sauce with lots of parmesan and eggs added so it will set up and be sliceable. It's great for fall and winter when the fresh summer tomatoes are long gone.

TOMATO SAUCE TART

Yield: 1 (9” to 10”) tart

Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 tablespoons ice water, more if needed

2 tablespoons chilled heavy cream

Filling:

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed

8 basil leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

5 large eggs, beaten

1 cup grated parmesan

Crust:

1.      Blend flour and salt in food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons ice water and cream. Process just until moist clumps form (add more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry). Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 1 hour. Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.

2.      Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness and transfer to a 9- or 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Trim overhang to ½-inch. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3.      Preheat oven to 375° F.

4.      Using a fork, pierce dough all over the bottom. Line with parchment paper and pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the weights/parchment. Bake until pale golden, about another 10 minutes (crust may shrink slightly). Set aside while you make the filling.

5.      Reduce oven temperature to 350° F.

Filling:

6.      Saute onion, garlic and basil in olive oil and butter until onions are soft, about 6-8 minutes.

7.      Add tomatoes (with their juices), bring to a steady simmer and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened (about 20 minutes). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

8.      Add eggs and cheese; mix well.

9.      Pour tomato mixture into tart shell and bake for 35-40 minutes or until set in the center.

crust from "Easy Tart Crust" Bon Appétit, March 2004 (filling slightly adapted from FCI handout)

flour, salt and butter

adding cream (water already added)

clumpy

dough disk

dough rolled

dough in tart pan

basil

onion, garlic and basil

I found these petit diced tomatoes that are nice
for times when you want the tomato chunks
smaller, and you're not planning to blend.

adding tomatoes to the pan

mixed and thickened

If you don't use the petit diced tomatoes and you
want your tomato sauce smoother, you could
always blend it at this point and then proceed.

adding parmesan

mixing in the eggs

filling in the blind baked tart shell

slicing baked tart

tomato tart slice

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