45 min

Tomato and tapenade tart

Name: Tomato and tapenade tart
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Tart:; x 4.00 bull’s heart tomatoes; 8.00 small plum, red and yellow French Tomatoes; x 1.00 pre-rolled puff pastry; 1.00 bunch basil leaves, torn; Vallée des Baux-de-Provence Olive Oil PDO; Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; Tapenade:; 100.00 g Nyons Black Olives PDO; 4.00 cloves Drôme White Garlic PGI; 0.50 tsp picked thyme leaves; x 1.00 salted anchovy fillet, washed and patted dry; 1.00 tsp salted capers, soaked well, washed and drained; 1.00 tsp brandy; 4.00 tsp Vallée des Baux-de-Provence Olive Oil PDO; 1.00 tsp red wine vinegar

By Alex Jackson, Chef

This tart is extremely simple. A sprinkling of fragrant basil at the end is essential, as well as a drizzle of your best olive oil. Sardine: Simple seasonal Provençal cooking by Alex Jackson, published by Pavilion Books.

Ingredients For

Tart:
bull’s heart tomatoes x 4
French Tomatoes

8 small plum, red and yellow See the article
pre-rolled puff pastry x 1
basil leaves, torn 1 bunch
Vallée des Baux-de-Provence Olive Oil PDO

See the article
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tapenade:
Nyons Black Olives PDO

100 g See the article
Drôme White Garlic PGI

4 cloves See the article
picked thyme leaves 0.50 tsp
salted anchovy fillet, washed and patted dry x 1
salted capers, soaked well, washed and drained 1 tsp
brandy 1 tsp
Vallée des Baux-de-Provence Olive Oil PDO

4 tsp See the article
red wine vinegar 1 tsp

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Preparation

Slice the bull’s heart tomatoes into thick 1 cm rounds. Transfer to a sieve suspended over a bowl and season well with salt. Leave the tomatoes for a good half hour to allow the juices to drip into the bowl. This will prevent your pastry becoming soggy if the tomatoes hold a lot of juice.

To make the tapenade, put all the dry ingredients in a blender. Blitz well. Add the wet ingredients and blitz further until everything is fully incorporated. The tapenade should be very smooth. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas mark 6.

Next, roll out – or simply unfurl, if pre-rolled – the pastry to a rectangle to fit your largest, flat, heavy-based baking tray. Cut a rectangle of parchment paper to the same size, then place the pastry on top. Score a 2 cm border all around the edges of the pastry. This pastry border will puff up around the filling. Put the baking tray in the oven to preheat for 10 minutes.

To assemble the tart, top the pastry inside the scored border with a generous smearing of tapenade. Arrange the sliced tomatoes in a single layer over the tapenade. Halve the small tomatoes, season with salt, and use them to fill any gaps. Drizzle the tart filling with olive oil and grind over some black pepper.

Remove the hot tray from the oven, slide in the tart on the parchment paper and return the tray to the oven. Bake the tart for 30 minutes, or until the pastry borders are puffed and crisp, the base is a light golden brown (lift the tart tentatively with a spatula to check) and the tomatoes are soft, squidgy and just started to take on a little colour.

Remove the tart from the oven, season lightly with a little flaky sea salt and black pepper, and scatter over the torn basil leaves. Allow the tart to cool on its tray, then slice into squares while still just warm. Drizzle with your best olive oil before serving.