‘The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!’
— Lewis Carroll
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I love parties. One of the best things about entertaining is all the wonderful leftovers! When I was a young girl, my favorite time of year was when it was my parents’ turn to host their monthly card club, because the special treats prepared for their 9:00 p.m. “lunch” were made exclusively for this occasion. We children, of course, had to wait until the following day to enjoy them, but it was always worth the wait!
My husband and I host several big parties a year, and I have never grown out of the thrill of discovering all the delicious leftover treats in my refrigerator the next day. This year, I also discovered something I rarely use — a single sheet of thawed puff pastry — so off I went to the internet to see what to do with it!
I had already used the other sheet to make simple tomato tartlets for the party brunch (I think it was à la Martha Stewart: rounds of puff pastry, pricked, brushed with olive oil, topped with 1/4″ Heirloom tomato slice, salt and pepper; after baking about 30 minutes, garnish with fresh basil and allow to cool to room temperature) — which were simply delicious! I found several similar tomato tart recipes on different sites, so I thought it would make perfect sense to adapt the tartlet recipe to a larger version.
Most of the recipes I found required some type of cheese mixture to be spread on the puff pastry, under the tomato slices, most commonly a combination of goat cheese and ricotta. But, cheese is cheese, in my book, and I had confidence that my juicy Heirloom tomato slices would carry any cheese right to the top. And, I was right! This was a wonderful, tasty and frugal dish!
Tomato Tart
ingredients
- small amount of unbleached flour
- 1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- about 1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
- about 1/2 cup sour cream
- several tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 large eggs
- chopped fresh basil
- Kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- assorted Heirloom tomato slices
Use the flour to roll the pastry into a 10 x 15 rectangle. Score around the edge of the pastry, about 1″ from edge, and then generously prick the center section of the pastry with a fork. The edges (which are not pricked) will puff up higher than the bottom of the tart. Brush the center section with 1 tablespoon of the oil.
Make a spreadable mixture of the shredded cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and the eggs. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped basil. Spread this mixture on entire center section of the puff pastry, ending at score lines.
[Note: The original recipe called for 1 cup ricotta cheese and 4 oz. goat cheese, along with the eggs. Use your imagination! You just need enough spreadable cheese mixture to provide an even layer between the tomato slices and the bottom crust.]
Top the cheese mixture with the tomato slices (I used a combination of Green Zebra, my orange “winter” tomatoes, and some Volunteer variety). Sprinkle the tomato slices with a little more salt and the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.
Bake 30 minutes (425° F), or until pastry is golden brown and filling is set. Cool slightly before cutting.