Three-Tomato and Edam Tart

I still love tomatoes today. I finished the tomato jam on the last piece of crusty French bread for supper, so I had to satisfy my tomato craving with something else. The theme for this month's Sugar High Friday has me thinking about tarts - so I indulged myself while Cakes was out with the boys tonight.

I reckon a nicely made, simple tart looks far more difficult than it is. To me it is the perfect stay at home supper as it involves baking, the home-iest kind of cooking you can engage in.

When I bake, whether it's bread, or sweets or, like tonight, a tart, I feel the strongest possible connection to the women in my family.

For generations, my mother, and aunties and grandmother and their aunties and grandmothers, have fed their familes well, and with love. Their whole raison d'etre was the home they kept and the food they made for their families.

When Mum would leave me at Gram's house for an afternoon off, I'd sit on the floor of Gram's kitchen, blue melamine countertop miles above me, sunlight streaming in the sheer white and pale blue polka-dot curtains. Gram sewed those curtains herself and they were still pristine after 30 years when Gramps died and she sold the house.

Gram would let me help with the weekend baking and I'd sit cross-legged on her floor kneading bread dough in her enormous steel mixing bowl. I'm sure I could have sat in the bowl, it was that big. When my five-year-old arms got tired, Gram would take my little fists in her hands and knead with me. That was how I learned to make bread, how I learned to tell whether the dough was kneaded enough, how I learned that baking was more about my Gram's love for us than anything else.

That is why, when I was feeling a little blue tonight (all that rain and dark sky), and wanting to do something with the beautiful bright tomatoes on my table, I chose to make a tart. Gram taught me so much more than how to tell if dough is properly kneaded. She taught me it's okay to feel a little blue and that baking, anything, with love is the cure for all that ails you.

I adapted this tart recipe from one I found at Epicurious.

Tomato and Edam Tart for Gram

Enough for a 30 cm tart pan

for the Pastry
180 grams flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
90 grams butter
2 Tablespoons cold buttermilk (or more, depending on the flour you use)

Sift first three ingredients together. Cut cold, cubed butter into flour with a pastry cutter until it resembles crumbs. Slowly add the cold buttermilk until the dough sticks together into a ball. Refrigerate until well chilled. Sandwich the dough ball between two layers of cling film and roll out to the desired shape. Peel away one layer of the cling film and place the pastry gently over the tart tin, remaining cling film facing up. Remove the cling film from the top of the dough and press dough firmly, but gently into the tin, trimming the edges even with the top of the pan. Set lined tart tin aside in the refrigerator until required.

For the Filling:
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tablesoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
200 grams edam cheese, shredded
5 ripe, firm juicy tomatoes, ends discarded and sliced into four or five slices each

Cook and stir onions, garlic and butter in a non-stick frying pan until golden and soft, (about 10 minutes) over medium heat, add salt. Arrange cooked onions in bottom of tart shell, covering the base evenly. Sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over the onion. Top onion with overlapping tomato slices. Bake tart in a 350F/190C oven for 60 minutes. Feed it to someone you love. Or me. Yes, feed it to me.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Funny...I just got a recipe for a tomato tart in the latest Martha Stewart Living, which I'm dying to make. Of course, Matt doesn't eat his vegetables, so I have to wait till I have company. And if I wait till our tomato plant starts giving us some goodies, it'll be even better.

Martha's recipe calls for roasted garlic spread over the crust, then fontina (but says you could easily swap it for Gruyere, or any number of cheeses), followed by pounds of tomatoes! Looks heavenly, and so does yours.

[clare eats]

Your tart looks gorgeous!
I have a recipe for one that you put a roasted pepper marmalade into the bottom and then use a heat gun to caramelise the tomatoes on the top.

I wish it was still tomato season here so I could make this!

[clare eats]

And your yellow tomatoes are gorgeous :)

[Moira]

This does look (and sound) amazing, but I'd like to try that roasted pepper marmalade base that clare mentioned as well!

[gwenda]

wow that's a nice picture!

[Jena]

Nothing to do with tomatoes, but have you seen the Bistro section of today's Edmonton Journal? Congrats on the great writeup!

[mireille]

how come no one said anything about the lovely grandmother story? She must have been wonderful. xoxo

[Ana]

Lyn
I just finished reading the article on the Edmonton Journal. Congrats. Loved reading it. And thanks Jena, for putting it in the comments.

[Rachael]

AMAZING article in the paper today! What fun! So well deserved. Your blog is a beauty. Im so happy for you, and as always, inspired.

:-)

Rachael

[Waz and Lenny]

G'day Lyn,

Thought I'd better drop in a comment. Really tasty site you've got here, neighbour.

We could do a Lex Culinaria/Crash Test Kitchen crossover special. No doubt you could teach us a thing or two.

Hope to see you soon,
Waz.

[farmgirl]

I can't wait to make this tart. Yum!
(Note to tomato plants in garden: Grow! Grow! Grow!)

[Lyn]

Welcome to the food blogging community Farm Girl!

Thanks for stopping by! The tart is great and I imagine that it would work well with just about any cheese!