Cherry Tomato Tart

It’s interesting how certain recipes and photos just seem to speak your name. The photo of this tart is the reason why I subscribed to Ricardo Magazine a year ago. Ok, this is not the only reason, but it’s one of them. I already wrote how I used to love that magazine a few years ago and then it was cancelled. Last year when I found out that the magazine is back, I hesitated – now that everything is online, was there even a point in subscribing to a print magazine? Will it be used? Will I like it? Then I saw that they offered an early subscription bonus, an extra issue. There was a photo of this bonus magazine and I fell in love with the picture on the cover. I knew I had to  subscribe just to get my hands on it. 

That recipe just stuck in my mind. So fast forward a year, I went outside a month ago to check my garden and saw that the tomato plants that we planted weren’t just regular tomato, they were cherry tomato with tiny clusters of little round fruit starting to grow. I knew right there and then that I’ll finally be making this tart. Over the course of last week I kept patiently (or not so much) checking the plants to see if all of the tomatoes on the vine were finally ripe. 

This is a beautiful and easy tart to make. It looks super impressive and festive and tastes fresh and delicious. There’s no need to use only tomatoes on the vine, individual tomatoes will look just as pretty. I made the tart with blue cheese, but I can imagine it with goat cheese too and the original feta as well. I have to be honest, I had trouble with the pastry, but it’s something that I personally have to work on. Whenever I make tarts/pies with cold butter, flour, tiny bit of liquid combination, the dough never works as well as it should. Required liquid is never enough, so I always add more and in turn pastry gets soggy – delicious, but not crunchy. 

Cherry Tomato Tart

adapted from Ricardo Cuisine magazine

Flour – 1 cup
Cold butter – 6 tablespoons (~90 g)
Cold milk – 3 tablespoons (See note)

Milk – 1/2 cup
Cornstarch – 1 tablespoon
Eggs – 3 extra-large
Fresh dill, chopped – 1/2 cup
Salt, pepper to taste
Blue cheese, crumbled – 60 g
Cherry tomatoes – 180 g (about 18-20 tomatoes on the vine)  

• In a food processor, pulse flour butter until resembles coarse sand.
• Add milk and pulse until the dough begins to form a bowl.
• Wrap dough in a plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool for 30 min.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough and place in a 14×4-inch tart pan, trim the edges. 
• Place the tart pan in the freezer for 15 min.
• Preheat oven to 400F.
• In a large bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch.
• Add eggs, dill and whisk well. Add seasoning if using.
• Pour the filling into the crust, sprinkle blue cheese on top.
• Carefully place tomato vines on the filling.
• Bake for 30 min or until filling is firm.

Comments

– I had to use just over 6 tablespoons of milk for the pastry as opposed to required 3 tablespoons. For some reason, I have never been able to make this kind of pastry, consisting of flour, butter and a tiny bit of liquid with the required proportions. Dough just never comes together with this little moisture for me, so I always end up adding more. The problem is that the pastry shell also gets soggy when I bake it with the filling. Every. Single. Time… Ugh… I still keep making these tarts and pies as I love them, but with all my expertise in baking, I have never been able to master this. 

– Original recipe called for feta and chives with basil. I think that this tart could be made different with various cheeses, I can just imagine the taste of goat cheese with some parsley and black pepper as another combination. Yum!

– When you trim the pastry in the tart pan, don’t throw out the left overs. Bake them along side the tart, they’ll become super tasty, crunchy, buttery, flakey crackers – absolutely delicious!

Note: this post is not sponsored by Ricardo Cuisine, I just really like their magazine and website.