All, Recipes, Vegetarian
Tomato Tart with Whipped Goat Cheese
This tart is our rusty, hearty, and unique favorite for dinner parties and Sunday lunches.
Don’t be daunted by homemade dough. All you need is a rolling pin and a bench scraper to create the easy, flaky base for this tart–but if you don’t have the time, a sheet of store-bought all-butter puff pastry, sprinkled with thyme and rolled into a 12-inch square, will do. For a French twist on this tart, replace basil with tarragon or chervil.
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How to Make It
Ingredients
Flaky Thyme Dough
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 ½ tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 5 tbsp ice water plus more if needed
Assembly
- 1 lb (454 g) heirloom tomatoes, in various sizes and colors
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 oz (113 g) log fresh goat cheese, chilled
- ½ cup 35% cream, chilled
- Basil leaves and blossoms
- Thinly sliced chives
- Flaky sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- To make the dough, combine 1 ½ cups flour, sugar, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add butter and toss to coat each cube with flour. Flatten butter cubes between fingers into sheets. Each piece will be about 1-inch wide. Toss to coat in flour once more. Drizzle 5 tbsp ice water over top and toss together until water is absorbed. Dough mixture will be very shaggy.
- Transfer dough-mixture onto a large work surface, then press together into a rough square. Generously dust a rolling pin with flour, then roll over dough-mixture to form a rough rectangle with short ends towards you. Use a bench scraper to fold the short ends over each other (like a letter). Flip and rotate 90°, then repeat rolling and folding. If dough is mostly falling apart, drizzle over more ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, erring on the side of less water. Repeat rolling and folding twice more. Wrap dough with plastic and refrigerate until firm for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
- Place a large piece of parchment on a work surface. Lightly flour parchment, dough and rolling pin. then lightly dust with flour. Roll out dough into a generous 12-inch square. Gently transfer parchment and dough to a baking sheet. Trim edges to straighten and patch any ripped edges with dough scraps. Dock pastry all over with a fork. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.
- While pastry chills, preheat oven to 400°F.
- Bake pastry until golden, 28 to 35 minutes. Holding each short end of parchment, transfer pastry to a rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
- While pastry cools, cut tomatoes into ¼-inch slices or wedges. Arrange slices in a single layer on a rimmed dish or tray. Season both sides with salt. The salt will draw excess water out of the tomatoes. Let stand at room temperature for at least 20 minutes or up to 4 hours.
- Add goat cheese and half the cream to a bowl. Mash together with a fork until smooth. Stir in remaining cream. Switch to a whisk, then beat until fluffy and thick, about 2 minutes. Season with pepper, the beat to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- To serve, pat tomato slices dry with a clean towel. Dollop whipped goat cheese over cooled pastry. Spread evenly over pastry, avoiding ½ border on all sides. Arrange tomato slices over top of whipped goat cheese. Garnish with basil leaves and blossoms, chives, flaky salt and pepper.
How to Store It
Unrolled pastry will keep well wrapped and refrigerated up to 1 week, or frozen up to 2 months. If frozen, thaw in the fridge one day ahead before proceeding with the recipe.
Baked and cooled pastry will keep well wrapped at room temperature up to 5 days.
Whipped goat cheese will keep will in an airtight container refrigerated up to 5 days.
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