Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Simple Tomato Tart

About to go into the oven

I made this quick tomato tart for my lunches this week. I have been trying to put a big effort into packing my lunch for the week, its just way more satisfying as the lunch options around my office are limited. Its also a good chance to be healthy. The thing is, it only works if I make a huge batch of something Sunday night to last me the week- otherwise I just scramble the whole week to find something. Anyways, this whole tart will easily last me for a week of lunches. 

This tart is really simple, I just used some frozen phyllo dough, defrosted it and piled on a bunch of ricotta, caramelized onions and fresh summer tomatoes. Tastes amazing! I think it would go even faster if you had puff pastry waiting for you in your freezer. 
Out of the oven. Sorry for my gross oven mitt.

I love summer tomatoes, and its so nice to finally be getting them here, even if they had to be grown in a hot house. I bought red, yellow and orange, and let the onions caramelize while I prepped the phyllo and tomatoes.

Recipe for Simple Tomato Tarts
by me!

  • 4-5 tomatoes
  • 2 sprigs of Thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
  • 2 cups of ricotta
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 onions
  • 1/2 package of defrosted phyllo dough
  • 4 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the onions finely, place in a pan on medium heat and let soften and brown for about 4 minutes without any oil (this is a little trick for speeding up your caramelizing onions).
Defrost the phyllo (mine said you had to let it defrost in the fridge, but I needed to use it right away and used the microwave, it was fine). Melt your butter. Using a pastry brush lay out a layer of phyllo on your tart pan, brush with butter, add another layer and repeat until you have put abut 7-10 layers of phyllo. You need it to be fairly sturdy to hold all the delicious things you will put inside.
While you  work on the phyllo check back on your onions and add some oil or butter and salt... turn the heat to low and just let them get nice and brown and sweet.
Prepare the filling. Mix 2 cups of ricotta cheese with two eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Spread on phyllo, and then lay the onions over top. Slice your tomatoes and layer these on top next. Finally finish with a generous sprinkle of salt, fresh ground pepper and just a couple dabs of balsamic vinegar. 

Bake for about 50 minutes. I then turned down the heat and left it in the warm oven for a bit longer to let a bit of the juices from the tomatoes evaporate.

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