# Tomato tart?



## Namaxy (Aug 30, 2012)

I'm prepping for a 70th birthday celebration tomorrow, and one of the requests is for a tomato tart. In the past, the way I'm made them is to make puff pastry, pre-bake a tart shell, line it with a little mozzarella, add peeled sliced fresh tomatoes, drizzle with basil oil and bake. My problem has been that even with salting the tomatoes to draw out some moisture, the puff pastry has a hard time standing up to the moisture. I was thinking about switching to shortcrust for the pasty, but if I keep it thick enough for heavy tomaotes, that might be a little flavorless.

Anyone have some tips or a favorite way of making this?:hungry:


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## Andrew H (Aug 30, 2012)

I put some egg wash down on the puff pastry before pre-baking.


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## cnochef (Aug 30, 2012)

I like the southern tomato pie, the type you would find in Charleston, SC:

Pre-bake a savory pie crust
add sliced ripe tomatoes 
top with sharp cheddar cheese bound with mayo, salt and fresh ground pepper
bake until cheese is just melted
top with fresh basil leaves


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## DeepCSweede (Aug 30, 2012)

Neal,
If you are doing it in a ramekin of some kind, you could always just top the tart with the crust and keep the bottom open. I like to use a little homemade balsamic (balsamic, honey, garlic infused oil, salt, pepper) before putting on the crust. Good luck. I picked about 20 pounds of various cherry tomatoes yesterday, so this may be utilized this weekend. I will probably add some grilled onion and zucchini to it also. Maybe a little goat cheese or mozz too.


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## heirkb (Aug 30, 2012)

My guess is that oven-drying the tomatoes would help. I've never made a tomato tart, so I don't know if you're going for a fresher tomato flavor, which you wouldn't get with oven-dried/roasted tomatoes. Something like 200-250F for lots of hours would work. In fact, I think I'm going to try making a tomato tart this way today since I have a bunch of organic tomatoes sitting out right now.


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## DeepCSweede (Aug 30, 2012)

If nothing else, you have spurred a bunch of us to use up our produce.:hungry:


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## heirkb (Aug 30, 2012)

DeepCSweede said:


> If nothing else, you have spurred a bunch of us to use up our produce.:hungry:



Yup. I have pounds of tomatoes, 5 duck legs, 4 quails, and a bunch of other stuff to use before I leave Saturday night.


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## Eamon Burke (Aug 30, 2012)

extra dry mozz, sun dried tomatoes

Just like doin a pizza.


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## Namaxy (Aug 30, 2012)

Thanks for the great ideas1 I'd use many of them in the offseason, but given the prolific amounts of fresh heirloom tomatoes we currently have, I'm trying to stick with fresh. I completely agree with the oven roasting idea. It's what I do to make crappy winter tomatoes tolerable, and was my first instinct here, but the guy I'm cooking for told me he loves fresh summer tomatoes, so I'm going to skip that for now. The best I've got to dehydrate the tomatoes a little is a little salt and kitchen towels. I'm going with the egg wash...and the other thing someone suggested is to bake the cheese onto the tart shell in advance...the melted cheese in addition to the egg wash makes the pastry 'somewhat' waterproof so to speak.


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