I have voiced my feelings on tomatoes before (HERE), but for those of you that don't know; I am involved in a lifelong love-affair with them. They are hands-down my favourite ingredient. EVER. We are leaving for Italy in less than 2 weeks for our honeymoon & do you know what I am most excited about? Not Michelangelo's masterpieces, the enormous Parmesan wheels (although those are high on my list) or the Tuscan countryside (read: wine), but the TOMATOES. The fleshy, sweet, sun-ripened, in-season god-of-all-foods that awaits me. Clear enough?
So, when ZZ2 contacted me & dropped off a box filled with all sorts of varieties of their tomatoes (as well as perfect heads of garlic, onions, avocados & an avocado tool amongst other things) it really was a box filled with perfect, red, joy for me!
I decided on something simple that shows off the tomato (& garlic) heroes & is so quick & easy to make. The flakiness of the puff pastry topped by these perfectly balanced tart & sweet tomatoes is offset beautifully by the creaminess of the marscapone & the freshness of the lemon zest & herbs. This tart is lovely served at room temperature on its own, but equally great as part of a harvest table alongside a beautiful green salad or a plump rosemary roast chicken & roast root vegetables.
Find a corner of winter-sun, bite into this tart, let the pastry crumbs fall into your lap & be happy!
To stand a chance to win your own mouthwatering ZZ2 box simply head to ZZ2's Facebook page, like them & let them know what you'd make with your box full of goodies before Friday the 10th July. You could win a box of beautiful ZZ2 produce, a really nifty avocado tool AND a R1000 Checkers voucher - how amazing? I would also love to hear your creative ideas so pop me a comment below.
Yield: Makes 1 x 20x20cm tart
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Ingredients
2 x ZZ2 whole heads garlic - tops chopped off
10 x ZZ2 Romanita tomatoes - halved
20 x ZZ2 Spanish Sante tomatoes
3 tbs olive oil
Sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
1 x all-butter puff pastry - rolled out to 20cmx20cm
1 x whole egg - beaten
2 x large ZZ2 tomatoes - sliced
1 x 250g tub of marscapone
1 x large handful fresh basil leaves - finely chopped
Zest of half a lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
To top:
Fresh basil
Fresh wild rocket
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180'C.
- Place your garlic heads, whole & halved tomatoes on a baking sheet.
- Pour olive oil into the garlic heads and coat the tomatoes.
- Season with salt & pepper and pop into the oven to roast for about 30-40 minutes or until the garlic & tomatoes are nicely roasted & slightly caramelised. Once sufficiently cooled to handle squeeze out the individual cloves from the head of garlic & set aside.
- Increase your oven temperature to 200'C
- Remove your puff pastry from the freezer.
- Cover pastry with the layered slices of large tomatoes leaving a 2-3cm edge.
- Season with salt and pepper & drizzle lightly with olive oil.
- Brush the beaten egg over any exposed bits of pastry - making sure not to brush the sides as this will glue the layers together & effect the rise of the pastry.
- Pop into the oven & bake for 30 minutes or until risen & golden.
- While the tart is baking combine the marscapone, chopped basil, lemon zest & season with salt & pepper.
- Once your tart is ready, remove from the oven & allow to cool for a couple minutes.
- Top with the tomato varieties, roast garlic, a few tablespoons of the basil marscapone (keep the extra aside - trust me, you'll want to add more!) & fresh basil & rocket.
- Season with salt & pepper & enjoy!
Food Love,
Tanya