One of the things in this past week’s box from our CSA share was a basket of beautiful, ripe tomatoes. I love good summer tomatoes, and even though I do still grow some in the garden, I don’t mind getting them in our CSA.
Of course, figuring out what to do with them can be interesting, since there are only two of us here. Can’t give any to our daughter, as she is allergic (poor thing!). I decided to use some of them to make a tomato and caramelized onion tart. I found a recipe that looked good and set to work.
I did adjust a few things. First, the recipe didn’t have you start caramelizing the onions until everything else was ready. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever caramelized onions, but it takes a loooong time. You have to cook them on very low heat so they brown slowly and allow the sugars to get nice and sweet. If you try to hurry the process with too high a heat level, all you get is burned sugars. So, I sliced and started the onions first thing. Then, I made the tart dough. It’s a pretty standard pastry dough- flour, salt, butter, ice water, plus a touch of nutmeg in this one. And that needed to chill in the fridge before rolling, which is standard for pastry dough, and even more so since we use a European style butter which is softer and starts to melt quickly. I got the two things that were going to take the longest and were pretty much hands off after initial prep out of the way. Then I prepped everything else: sliced tomatoes, grated cheese, got the tart pan ready.
I also put the sliced tomatoes on a sheet pan lined with paper towels, salted them, and covered with more paper towels. You want the tomatoes to roast some in the oven while the tart cooks, and I figured pulling some of the moisture out was probably a good idea.
When everything was ready, I rolled out the dough and pressed it into the tart pan. Added the now nicely caramelized onions, topped with the tomato slices, and popped it in the oven to bake. Another deviation from the recipe here. It said to put the grated cheese on now, but I wanted the tomatoes to roast and brown a bit before the cheese hit. Once the tart shell was baked and lightly browned, I spread the grated cheese (Gruyere, for us) on top. Here, I turned off the oven and slid the tart back in because I was also headed outside to grill a couple of chicken thighs I’d marinated in an Italian dressing. When I brought the chicken in, I put the broiler on for a bit, just to get the cheese nice and melty and a just a touch browned. It turned out pretty well, I think. It was tasty and looked, well, maybe not magazine-perfect, but rather pretty, I think.
Yes, we ate some before I took the picture. The chicken was ready and getting cold, so dinner came first! It was good.
And So On... 