Fresh tomato tart

Name: Fresh tomato tart
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: Puff pastry round 8 oz; Tomatoes for salads 17.6 oz; Mozzarella cheese 9 oz; Genoese pesto (Basil sauce) 2 tbsp; Basil 4 leaves; Extra virgin olive oil 1 drizzle; Salt 1 pinch

Vegetarian

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Serving: 8 persone
Cost: Very low

PRESENTATION

Recipe by
Francesca Meucci

Cheerful and colourful, savory tarts are dishes that can come in handy on many occasions: you can serve them as an opening course for an informal lunch, or put them in a picnic basket or lunch box because they are also delicious when eaten cold. The fresh tomato tart, for example, is a simple and appetizing savory pie, perfect for the summer, which gives us sweet and tasty tomatoes. If you love Italian cuisine, the combination of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil will be almost automatic! A shell of fragrant puff pastry welcomes a soft, delicate and stringy filling. Basil pesto, another typical product of Italian cuisine, will give this fresh tomato tart a unique aroma and touch of flavour!

How to prepare Fresh tomato tart

To prepare the fresh tomato tart you will first need to cook the empty puff pastry shell in the oven, so that it is then crunchy. To ensure that it does not swell during cooking, you will have to fill the puff pastry base with dried beans or rice, which act as weight. The tomato and mozzarella filling, on the other hand, will only have to be baked for a few minutes.

Line a 10-inch (25.5 cm) round baking pan with baking paper, then roll out the puff pastry so that it adheres well to both the bottom and the edges of the pan. Prick the bottom with a fork, then cover it with another sheet of baking paper, over which you will pour the dried beans, distributing them evenly over the whole bottom. Instead of beans you can use uncooked rice.

Bake the puff pastry in a preheated oven at 374°F (190°C) for about 15 minutes, after which it will be puffy and golden around the edges and cooked through, but still fairly clear, on the bottom. Remove the baking paper with the beans. Let the tart cool for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the fresh tomato tart filling: wash and dry the tomatoes, remove the stem and cut them into fairly thin slices. Season them with a pinch of salt and keep them aside. Cut the mozzarella into not too thick slices.

It's time to fill the savory tart: starting from the edge, alternate the tomato and mozzarella slices on the bottom of the tart, arranging them in a circle and overlapping them a bit. Then form a second circle of tomato and mozzarella slices inside the first and, if there is space, also a third circle in the center, until the entire bottom is covered. Drizzle the surface of the tart with a few of extra virgin olive oil.

Put the fresh tomato tart back in the oven - still at 374°F (190°C) - for about 10 minutes or until the mozzarella has melted. Then take it out of the oven and brush it on the surface with the basil pesto, distributing it well over the entire surface of the tart. Finally, garnish with fresh basil leaves.

You can serve the fresh tomato tart both hot and at room temperature.

How to store

You can keep the fresh tomato tart in the fridge for a couple of days. Before serving, heat it briefly in the oven or microwave.

Advice

The basil pesto should be added when the savory tart is cooked, because excessive heat can alter its color and flavour. Another possibility is to spread it on the bottom of the puff pastry shell and then cover it with the tomato and mozzarella slices, which will protect it from excessive heat.

The beans will no longer be good to cook, but you can keep them and use them in the future for this type of cooking.

For the translation of some texts, artificial intelligence tools may have been used.