Tarte Fine aux Tomates
A thin puff pastry tart spread with mustard and topped with overlapping tomato slices, thyme and olive oil, baked for 25 minutes.
Photograph credit: heirloom tomato tart by Ted Major · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Make Ahead and Storage
Best on the day. Reheat at 180°C / 356°F for 10 minutes.
Tarte Fine aux Tomates: The Method
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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F with a baking tray inside. Salt the tomato slices on kitchen paper for 15 minutes, then pat dry.
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Unroll the pastry on baking paper. Score a 2 cm border, prick the middle with a fork and brush with the mustard inside the border.
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Lay the tomatoes in overlapping rows inside the border. Drizzle with the oil and scatter with the thyme.
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Brush the border with the beaten egg.
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Slide onto the hot tray and bake for 25 minutes until deep golden.
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Scatter with the basil and serve warm.
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Tips for Success
- Salt the tomato slices and pat them dry.
- Brush the pastry with mustard to seal the base.
- Bake on a hot tray so the base crisps.
Why the Method Is What It Is
This is what to make in the first week the tomatoes taste of tomatoes, because the tart has nothing to hide behind. A sheet of pastry, a layer of mustard, tomato slices, olive oil and thyme: that is the whole list, and the quality of the tomatoes is the quality of the tart.
The main enemy is water. Slice the tomatoes 5 mm thick, lay them on kitchen paper and sprinkle them lightly with salt for 15 minutes, then pat them dry. Brush the pastry with Dijon mustard first, and leave a 2 cm border, which puffs into a golden edge. The mustard seasons the tart and acts as a barrier so the juices do not soak the base.
Prick the middle of the pastry with a fork so it does not rise under the tomatoes, overlap the slices in rows and drizzle with oil. Bake hot, at 200°C / 390°F, on a preheated tray so the base crisps. The tart is ready when the edges are puffed and deep golden and the tomatoes have started to caramelise at the edges. Finish with torn basil.
Good Alongside
Green salad · Goat cheese · Rosé
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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