Café Brio’s Savoury Tomato Tart

photo: Savoury Tomato Tart, served with Parry Bay Farm lamb loin and mixed greens

Chef Laurie Munn from Café Brio served this elegant tart as a side dish in his “Nightshade” field to plate cooking workshop held at Foxglove Farm last weekend. Laurie used the ‘Sun Gold’ variety of tomato grown on Foxglove to achieve the beautiful colour and exquisite flavour in this tart, but you can experiment with your own favourite tomato varieties.

Pastry:

1 2/3 cups flour

60g butter at room temperature

30g cold water

1 whole egg

pinch of salt 1 Tbsp sugar

In a medium sized bowl, combine butter, water, egg, salt, sugar and about 1/2 the flour and mix until you have a smooth paste. Add in the rest of the flour and mix until it is just coming together. Shape the dough into a rough disc shape and place in the fridge until it feels firm, about one hour or so.

Tomato Filling:

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

2 lbs fresh tomatoes, squished up

5 whole eggs

salt to taste

In a saucepan large enough to hold the tomatoes, sweat the tomatoes in the olive oil over a medium heat until they start to become quite juicy. At this point you can raise the heat to high and reduce the juice until you have just over two cups of stewed tomato. Purée the tomato mix and pass through a strainer making sure you have about two cups. Season to taste, and whisk the eggs one by one, when the mix has cooled a bit.

To bake the tart:

Preheat the oven to 400°F

Roll out the chilled pastry into a circular shape about 1/4 inch thick. Line a tart shell or spring form pan with the pastry, trying not to stretch the dough, and leaving the excess to hang over the edge to trim later. Place back in the fridge to chill (about 30 minnutes) and then line the shell with some parchment paper and rice or beans to weigh down the dough. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the dough begins to feel dry on the bottom. Pour in the tomato filling and reduce the oven to 325°F and continue to bake until it is just set and wiggly, about 30-45 minutes. Let cool and using a sharp knife, trim off the excess pastry from the tart pan.

Makes one 8-inch tart, enough for about 8-10 people.