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Baking With Dorie: Harvest Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

Posted by Dorie Greenspan, September 27, 2007 at 4:45 PM

It took me three years to admit it, but the rather large patch in my garden that we created specifically for tomatoes was dug in the wrong place! The plants just don't get enough sun, which explains why I'm harvesting the first truly ripe tomatoes now, at the end of September.

The tomatoes were awfully slow to turn red—so slow that most of them were eaten by the chipmunks, raccoons, deer and moles, who get to spend more time in the garden than I do—but, on a good day, that made them seem so much more precious. To celebrate our first harvest, we ate sliced tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner (I even had a tomato sandwich one day) and I made these pretty tomato tartlets as a starter for an outdoor dinner.

The tartlets are built on a base of puff pastry (homemade or storebought), which is baked between two cookie sheets in order to keep it from doing what it was created to do—puff. I know, I know, it's an act against the pastry's nature, but what you get is perfect: a layer of pastry that is shatter-at-a-touch flaky, but flat enough to serve as a palette for a pile of delicious ingredients.

The tartlets in the picture are made with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese (for my husband) and goat cheese (for me). Invisible, but providing a lot of flavor, is an underlayer of pesto. It almost goes without saying that once you've mastered making the little puff pastry rounds, you can play around with this construction almost endlessly, changing the toppings to match the seasons and your whims. And the same base can be used to make sweet tartlets, doubling both the possibilities and the pleasures.

Playing around: I'm sure you'll come up with your own variations, but here are a few to start you thinking. Use the tartlet base to make a type of Pissaladiere, topping it with a layer of caramelized onions, black olives and anchovies, or a version of Tarte Flambee, using crème fraîche, caramelized onions, and small chunks of bacon or pancetta; either should be warmed briefly before serving. Going sweet, you can spread a thin layer of lightly sweetened crème fraîche or sour cream over the dough and then top it with berries, or, my favorite, roasted figs; in both cases, a drizzle of honey would be the perfect last touch.

About the author: Dorie Greenspan is the author of several books on dessert, most recently Baking: From My Home to Yours. Dorie can also be found at DorieGreenspan.com and on the Bon Appétit website, where she is a special correspondent.

Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

- makes 4 servings (but you can multiply the recipe ad infinitum) -
With the exception of the quantity of puff pastry, the measurements for the other ingredients are approximate. You’ll have to judge for yourself how much pesto, tomatoes and cheese you’ll want.

Ingredients

1/2 pound ready-to-use puff pastry dough (homemade or storebought) or 1 sheet Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, thawed
About 1/3 cup pesto (again, homemade or storebought)
4 or 5 ripe tomatoes, sliced into rounds
1 ball mozzarella or about 1/2 pound fresh goat cheese (or the cheese of your choice)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil, for drizzling
Fresh basil, for garnish

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Have two baking sheets and a large sheet of parchment paper at hand.

To make the tartlet bases: Working on a floured surface, roll the dough out into a 13- or 14-inch square. Using a sharp knife and a bread plate as a guide, cut out four 6-inch rounds. Pricks the rounds all over with the tip of the knife or the tines of a fork. Transfer the tartlet bases to one of the baking sheets, cover with the sheet of parchment and top with the other baking sheet. If you've got a little time, pop the set-up into the refrigerator or freezer to re-chill for 10 minutes. (You can wrap the rounds, separated by pieces of wax or parchment paper, and store them in the freezer for up to 2 months and bake them without defrosting, just add a few minutes to the baking time.)

Bake the tartlet bases for 18 to 20 minutes, or until they are firm. Carefully lift off the top baking sheet and the piece of parchment and bake 3 minutes or so more, until the bases are well browned. Transfer the pastry rounds to a cooling rack and let them come to room temperature.

To finish the tartlets: Spoon a thin layer of pesto over the top of each pastry round, leaving a border of about one-half to one inch bare. Next, arrange alternating slices of tomato and cheese in a pinwheel pattern, putting a slice of tomato and/or cheese in the center to fill in the hole.

If you'd like, you can season the tartlets with salt and pepper, drizzle them with oil, finish with a basil leaf and serve them now. Or, you can hold off on the oil and basil and warm the tartlets.

To warm the tartlets: Put the tartlets on a baking sheet and either run them under the broiler (keeping them about 5 inches from the heat) until the cheese just barely starts to melt, about 3 minutes; or warm them in a 425°F oven for about 5 minutes. Season them with salt and pepper, drizzle them with olive oil and top with fresh basil.

Storing: While the cut out and pricked dough for the bases can be stored in the freezer and baked when you need them, the finished tartlets should be eaten as soon after they're assembled as possible. Wait, and the pastry will get soggy.

1 Comment | Tags: tartlets, tomato tartlets, tomatoes

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