Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
One thing I really love about the summer months is the availability of fresh garden tomatoes. Each year I usually take advantage of their abundance and bake us a Country Tomato Pie.
I cannot tell a lie, its fabulously tasty, but it is a bit of work with making and rolling out the pastry, etc. A most delicious solution to this is this Rustic Tomato Pie I am sharing with you today.
In fact I think this Rustic version is even more delicious!!
We have not grown our own tomatoes this year. The pandemic means we were not able to get out and about to get seedlings, etc. Instead I have been buying a crate of fresh heirloom tomatoes from The Tomato Stall every couple of weeks.
And let me tell you, they have been worth every penny. You have never tasted such delicious tomatoes apart from growing your own. Grown on the Isle of Wight, they are just beautiful and so flavour filled! (And no they have not paid me or given me free tomatoes to say that. I have bought my own tomatoes.)
They are really fabulous tomatoes, and so pretty.
Far too pretty to hide underneath something like the cheese filling in my regular tomato pie recipe.
May I present my Rustic Tomato Tart, a flavour filled riff on my Country Tomato Pie.
It lacks nothing that is present in the original recipe. There are plenty of thick and juicy ripe tomatoes. Fresh herbs, basil and thyme . . .
Two tasty cheeses . . . gruyere (which is a swiss cheese) and Parmesan . . . and rich mayonnaise . . .
The cheeses get mixed with the mayonnaise and fresh herbs and spread on a base of all-butter puff pastry, and then topped with a layer of rich caramelised onions . . .
I treat the tomatoes with salt and sugar while I am caramelising the onions, which draws out some of the moisture and helps to enhance the flavours of these delicious beauties.
These get layered on top of the caramelised onions . . . I like to scatter plenty of coarse black pepper on top of the tomatoes.
You won't need salt as they've already been salt treated.
I then dolloped more of the mayo mixture here and there on top of the tomatoes. Not a lot, just a bit here and there . . .
The edges of the tart are brushed with a mix of egg yolk and cream . . . it helps to gild the edges when baking . . . so pretty . . .
The tart then gets baked in a fairly hot oven . . . .
Just long enough to get that puff pastry crisp and golden brown . . .
Long enough to turn that mayo, herb and cheese filling into something incredibly lush and unctuously delicious . . .
The tomatoes just barely cooked . . . but still retaining quite a lot of their beautiful textures and flavours . . .
Just look at their beautiful jewel-like colours . . . gold and ruby and russet . . . stunning.
I tore up a few more basil leaves to garnish the finished tart. Perfection. This Rustic Tomato Pie was pure and utter perfection.
Rustic Tomato Pie
Yield: 6
This delicious tomato pie is a lot easier to make than the regular one, but every bit as delicious if not more so!
Ingredients:
- 5 to 6 ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and cut julienne
- 220g mayonnaise (1 cup)
- 60g grated Gruyere cheese (1/2 cup)
- 90g grated Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup)
- 2 1/2 TBS chopped fresh basil, plus extra to garnish
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- coarse black pepper
- 1 sheet of all butter puff pastry
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 1 TBS milk or light cream
Instructions:
- Slice your tomatoes. Sprinkle them with the seasalt and sugar and then sit them in a colander set over a bowl to drain.
- While they are draining, melt the butter in a skillet. Add your sliced onion and cook them slowly over medium low heat, stirring occasionally for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly caramelised. Remove from the heat.
- Stir the mayonnaise, both cheeses and the chopped herbs together.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Line a large baking sheet with some baking paper.
- Unroll the puff pastry and place onto the baking sheet. Score a rim 1/2 inch around the outsides of the sheet of pastry. Prick all over the centre using a fork. Spread with 3/4 of the mayonnaise mixture, reserving the remainder to dot the top of the tart.
- Sprinkle the caramelised onions over the mayonnaise mixture on the tart base.
- Pat the tomato slices dry and arrange them over the top of the caramelise onions in a decorative manner. Season with some coarse black pepepr.
- Dollop the remainder of the mayonnaise mixture here and there on top of the tomatoes.
- Whisk together the egg yolk and cream/milk. Brush this mixture on the border around the tart edge.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp and golden, and the cheese filling has melted.
- Garnish with some fresh basil and serve, cut into squares.
I doubt I will ever bake my regular tomato pie again. This was so easy to make and incredibly delicious once done . . . I mean puff pastry . . . I adore puff pastry. I have created a new favourite!
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I used up some of those delicious tomatoes that I bought last week in a tasty salad built just for two (or three if you are not a big salad eater.)
I really love tomatoes as I think I have told you in the past. They are quite simply one of my favourite things. For months and months now I have seen other food bloggers being gifted with boxes of beautiful boxes of rich and delicious looking tomatoes from The Tomato Stall, on the Isle of Wight. . Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. lask week I decided that Todd and I deserved a bit of a splurge after being stuck in our home on lockdown for the past 10 weeks. I bit the bullet and ordered us a mixed family box.
I think it is just amazing that we live in a day and an age where something like this, grown and harvested on the Isle of Wight, can be picked on one day and then be sitting on my dining room table the next. They are absolutely beautiful, and arrived undamaged except for one which was slightly squashed. I ate that right away like an apple, lightly sprinkled with sea salt. Oh boy was it ever good!! I was not sorry I had ordered them. Not one bit.
We have both been enjoying them very much in the ensuing days. Yesterday I decided to make an Oven Roasted Tomato sauce with some of them. I am not sure what each variety of tomato is, but I think I picked the right ones for roasting and saucing anyways . . .
I used two different kinds. I think the longer one is one that would be used for cooking with. It was nice and fleshy. Not sure about the smaller ones, but they worked well in any case.
If you have never made an oven roasted tomato sauce before now, you really need to try it! This recipe is so simple and always turns out so delicious! Its a great recipe to use when you have a glut of tomatoes in the garden or when you have some anoemic tomatoes from the shops that you want to make taste better. Roasting tomatoes is always a real flavour enhancer!
Cut in half, roast in a special mixture, peel, blitz and serve. Simple.
There is nothing extraordinarily unusual in the roasting mixture. A good olive oil and some garlic . . .
Some dried basil and oregano . . .
You cut your tomatoes in half and lay them cut side down in the mixture and then roast them in a hot oven . . .
About 35 to 40 minutes in a hot oven until they are all rich and caramelised and have released their juices . . . mingling with the olive oil, garlic and herbs in the roasting tray . . .
You don't need to peel them afterwards. I always do because I don't like the feel of cooked tomato skins in my mouth.
The roasted flesh slips very easily out of the skins in any case. I just held them one at a time over the bowl of the food processor and they fell right in.
I don't bother to remove the seeds. I don't mind them. You can if you want to. I actually don't have a full size food processor anymore. It is on my wish list to get one. The lid jammed shut on mine and I cannot get it off for love nor money. I use my Cookhouse mini chopper. Its a great little tool. I bet I use it just about every second day or so!
Anyways, just blitz the sauce until smooth and you are good to go. You can leave it a bit chunky if you like it that way. I do sometimes, and other times I like it smooth.
It is perfectly flavoured, with just the right amount of garlic and herbs . . . in short perfect. Just like the tomatoes I used to make it.
Today I served it on some radiatore so that there were plenty of little pocket to hug onto that lush sauce. Seriously tasty with some grated Parmesan on top.
Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce
Yield: 4
This is the best tomato sauce. Fresh tomatoes when roasted have the most beautiful rich flavour. Simple and delicious.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 3 or 4 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 TBS really good quality extra virgin olive oil
Instructions:
- Pre-heat your oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Wipe your tomatoes off with a damp cloth, cut them into halves and set aside.
- Pour the olive oil into the bottom of a large shallow baking tray with one inch sides. Scatter in the minced garlic, basil leaves, oregano leaves, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the tomatoes, cut side down, fitting them all into the sheet and spreading the olive oil mixture around beneath them. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes until soft, the skins are starting to peel off, and some of them are beginning to colour.
- Remove from the oven and let cool somewhat. Lift off all the peels and discard. You can then put them through a mouli to remove the seeds and puree them, but I prefer to just mash it all together with a fork. I like the extra texture and flavour of the seeds.
- Serve hot with your favourite pasta, or let cool and freeze in containers.
I could seriously eat pasta until it comes out my ears. Todd not so much. I don't mind. More for me!
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