Savory Tart

It's been another one of those weeks, so I apologize for the lack of posts. I thought I was having allergy issues, but it turns out I really was just sick! Mostly better now.


This is from Tuesday evening's dinner. It's a carmelized onion and tomato tart. Let me explain.


On Tuesday I had the priviledge of voting in the Maryland Primary elections! Yeah Democracy!!! My polling place is behind the grocery store at an elementary school. So being a responsible citizen and voting, I stopped in the store to get a donut! Well, they actually didn't have donuts, but I thought I'd see if there was something I could buy for dinner now, instead of stopping on the way home.

I decided on some fresh thyme, 2 medium vine-ripe tomatoes and some puff pastry. Since the puff pastry is in the freezer section and I'll want it defrosted, I'll just store it in the fridge at work.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Later that night at home, I took one large sweet onion and sliced it into strips and dropped them into a medium heat saute pan with some olive oil. Seasoned with some salt and pepper and a few branches of the thyme. For about 20 minutes, I would return every few minutes and stir, allowing the onions to sweat and carmelize, but not turn brown.

When they are done, allow to cool and remove the thyme stems.

Meanwhile, slice your tomatoes to about 1/4 inch. Remove the seeds. Lay on a rack over paper towel. Sprinkle with salt. This will draw out some extra moisture so the tomatoes don't make your tart to wet later. Allow to rest while your onions carmelize and you prepare the puff pastry.

Now, prepare the puff pastry.

A package of pepperidge farm puff pastry has two larger sheets. Remove one sheet and unfold. For this recipe, I cut one section off and returned it to the box with the remaining sheet. Cut the two remaining sections into a square. Take some of the scrapes and cut out a narrow (1/4 inch) strip of puff pastry and apply to the outside border of the square puff pastry. See the little border in the photo...that's what you want to do! When you apply the strips to the square, brush on a little water, to help them stick together.

With your box complete, you need to dock the dough! Do what to the what? Take a fork and poke holes into the inside of the puff square. This will allow the steam to escape, keeping the dough under your filling from puffing too much.

OK, you're now ready to assemble your tart.

Arrange the onions in a layer inside the square. Now top the onions with a thin layer of grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Yum! Now arrange the tomatoes inside the square. But first blot off the excess moisture. Once they are arranged sprinkle with a touch more parm and then give them a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until the parm is melted, the tomatoes are starting to roast and puff is puffed and lightly browned.

Sprinkle some thyme leaves over the top as a garnish. Slice and serve.

This was tasty and I plan to try it again. I'm sure there is something I'd change, but I don't know what...not until I try it again. But it was tasty. Now, we had this as "dinner." Well, it's not really enough to be dinner...it needs a salad or some soup.