Tomato Tart (or how to deal with a lot of tomatoes)

My lovely boss loves to garden and apparently has a lot of land upstate in which to do so.  He’s been bringing me eggplant, peppers and TONS of tomatoes.  I’ve made a few batches of delicious tomato jam, and was looking for something a little different.  These tomatoes are gorgeous – ripe, big and super heirloom-looking.  I looked into A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen and on the back cover is a photo of an amazing tomato tart.  Read the recipe and I had all the ingredients!  I started the dough at 11pm and Phil thought I was nuts, but it needs some fridge time.  Totally worth it.

Rosemary Tomato Tart (adapted from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tsps minced fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 8 pieces (I always keep some butter in the freezer for crust making purposes)
5 tablespoons ice cold water
3 ripe tomoatoes
6oz shredded cheddar cheese (original recipe calls for goat cheese)
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
handful of chopped chives (not in original recipe)

To Do:
The night before, place flour, rosemary and salt in food processor and blend well.  Add the bits of butter and pulse until pea sized crumbles form.  Add ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough begins to form a rough ball (do not add too much water 5 tablespoons should do it with whole wheat flour).  Knead dough on a floured surface into a smooth ball.  Flatten into a five inch disc, cover in plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least an hour and up to two days.

The next day, core and slice your tomatoes thin.  Place on a plate lined with a paper towel and put a paper towel on top of the tomatoes (this dries out the tomatoes a bit and gets rid of some of the seeds.  Preheat the oven to 375F and roll out the dough on a floured surface into a 12″ disc.  Place over a fluted tart pan and press the dough to the bottom.  Use rolling pin to cut off excess dough from the sides of the pan and save (you can make another little tart or crostada with this).  Prick the crust with a fork and scatter the cheese on top of it.  Remove paper towels from tomatoes and place tomatoes on top of the cheese in overlapping circles.  Scatter roughly chopped chives on top of the whole tart and top with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30-45 minutes or until the crust pulls away from the edges of the pan.  Cool and serve.

It can serve four as a side.  The whole thing might just be eaten up quickly though.