Tomato tart

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 1 tomato tart, you will need:

• 1 1 Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)
• 2 6 tomatoes
• 3 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 3 tablespoons French mustard
• 5 salt
• 6 pepper
• 7 parsley (optional)
• 8 fresh coriander (cilantro) (optional)
• Total weight: 890 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
43 min.	35 min.	1 hour 18 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Preheat the oven to 210°C or 410°F. Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil into a tart mould or tin, spread it all over the bottom with a brush. Line this with 1 Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée). If you have a protection paper with the puff pastry, leave it, and grease between paper and pastry. If needed cut around the top of the tin to remove excess pastry.
2	Prick the bottom of pastry with a fork all over to prevent it rising too much during cooking. Spread out 3 tablespoons French mustard all over the puff pastry, with the back of a tablespoon or a brush. Leave to wait in the refrigerator.
3	Peel 6 tomatoes, and cut them in medium slices. Note: if you have the time (1 hour), salt them on both sides, and spread them out on a grid or in a strainer for aboout an hour, this draw out some of the juice could make the pastry soggy during cooking. See below on this subject.
4	Lay the best tomato slices around the bottom of the pastry case, as regularly as possible. Use a metallic spatula or a fork to place the slices, it's easier than with fingers.
5	Finish by filling the centre of the tart with the tomato offcuts.
6	Add a dash of olive oil (with herbs if possible).
7	If you have them, scatter some chopped herbs on the top, then put on a low shelf in the oven in the oven for approximately 30/40 minutes.
8	The tart is cooked when the bottom of the pastry is cooked, i.e golden brown. Best eaten warm.
9	Possible alternative: For a stronger tomato flavour, you can, after adding the mustard and before the tomatoes, add a layer of pizza sauce.

Remarks

The tomatoes depending on of their origin and ripeness could give off a lot of juice, which can be a bit annoying as it makes the pastry soggy. To try to reduce this there are several methods:

• Do not salt before cooking, because it's the salt which brings out the juice. Instead salt salt just after bringing out of the oven.
• Drain off as most of the juice partway through cooking, but it's a slightly delicate operation. For this Francoise uses a large plastic ex-medical syringe.
• Salt the the tomatoes and leave the juice to drain off before using (see above).

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