This Winter Tomato Chèvre Tart will brighten your menu in the tomato off season for sure.
Roasting tomatoes in the middle of winter takes a bit of time but little effort and you won't be sorry. The flavours are concentrated and rich, even more so than some fresh from the garden tomatoes in summer.
This Roasted Tomato Winter Salad gave a big boost to last year's winter menus!
You may want to roast a big batch while you're at it because you can also make Roasted Tomato Soup or use them in a Roasted Tomato Pasta Salad.
The pastry for this tart is one of the best I have ever made. It has a few steps like chilling, rolling, freezing and blind baking but it is worth it. I may make a few to keep on hand in future. The bonus is though...you make it in your food processor fairly quickly and with no mess!
The other interesting thing about the pastry is that it calls for ⅓ cup of toasted nuts. You can switch up the nuts if you like to suit your menu. I used pine nuts to go with the parmesan in the filling. You could use hazelnuts or almonds if you prefer.
You are going to make the tart crust and roast the tomatoes. Then you will fully bake the tart crust and fill it after it cools a bit. This recipe calls for goat cheese but you could also use an herbed cream cheese, like Boursin, if you wanted to make a variation. (I would skip the parmesan if you are going with the herbed cream cheese.)
This is a great make-ahead recipe. You can make the tart shell and roast the tomatoes the day before and then assemble the tart the following day.
I garnished it with these flavourful microgreens that added bit of spicy hit!
You serve this tart warm or at room temperature so it is perfect for buffet tables or brunch. It is also great as a light lunch with a side salad. To warm it you will only need about 10 minutes at 350 degrees before serving.
Winter Tomato Chèvre Tart
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Save Print Pin FacebookIngredients
Tart Shell
- ⅓ cup pine nuts or substitute toasted almonds or hazelnuts
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ tsp sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1-3 Tbsps ice water
Filling
- 2 lbs cocktail and/or cherry tomatoes you can use any combination of cocktail, cherry, grape
- 2 Tbsps olive oil
- 2 tsps minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 ½ tsps dried
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 5 oz goat cheese at room temperature
- ¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- spicy microgreens optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Add nuts, flour salt and sugar to your food processor and pulse to mix thoroughly. Add the butter and pulse until it looks like coarse meal. Add vinegar and 1 tablespoon water to the mix and pulse until the dough just starts to come together. Add remaining water until dough forms a ball. (If dough doesn't seem to completely form a ball after 3 Tbsps water, take a handful and see if it holds together when pressed. If so then dump the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and use the wrap to press it together into a ball that holds together.)
- Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour until firm.
- While the dough is chilling, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Rinse tomatoes and cut the small ones into halves and any cocktail tomatoes into quarters, vertically. Toss tomatoes with oil and spices. Spread them out on the parchment paper with cut sides up as much as possible.
- Roast 35-40 minutes until they start to shrink but are still juicy and the liquid has just started to caramelize. Remove tomatoes and reduce oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll dough out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to about a 13" circle. Remove top sheet of plastic wrap and invert pastry into a 10" tart pan or pie plate. Center the pastry and peel off the remaining plastic.
- Prick the bottom of the pastry all over with a fork. Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray and cover the pastry, spray side down. Freeze in your freezer for about 15 minutes.
- Remove the shell and fill the with pie weights (I use dried beans.)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Gently remove the foil and pie weights. Return pastry to the oven and bake another 15 minutes until the pastry is lightly browned and cooked through.
- Allow pastry to cool. Gently spread the goat cheese evenly around the bottom of the shell. Sprinkle evenly with parmesan cheese. Transfer the tomatoes to the shell and distribute evenly. Top with microgreens if using just before serving.
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