End of Summer Heirloom Tomato Tart

Labor Day has come and gone. While summer doesn’t officially end until September 21st, Labor Day weekend marks the start of one very very important season.

College football has begun! If you have followed Taylor Takes a Taste over the last couple years you may have noticed that I enjoy college football. My love for all things tailgating has lead me to travel the country exploring tailgating culture and cuisine, write a book on the subject (more on that soon in the future), and create a separate site devoted to my favorite activity. Taylor Tailgates is the home of all my tailgating travels, recipes, gear reports and fashion trend updates. With football now here, Taylor Tailgates is where I will be posting the majority of my content over the next few months. If you haven’t already, please head over to the site and check it out. I have been working on a lot of tailgating recipes that I will be posting throughout the season.

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With summer now being over for me, I wanted to leave you way to use any summer tomatoes that you may have left around. Here is a delicious heirloom Tomato Tart that Sally James and I did for the Go Bold with Butter.

 

Heirloom Tomato Tart

Makes 1 9×9 tart

Ingredients:

For the tart dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons cold salted butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2-4 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:
1 medium sized yellow onion, peeled, halved, and cut into thin slices
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
2 -3 large heirloom tomatoes

Start by making the tart dough. In the bowl of a food processor, add flour, zest and salt. Process for about 20 seconds. Add the cold butter and process until it achieves a coarse meal consistency. Add heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of ice water. Pulse a few times. If the dough seems too dry add remaining water a tablespoon at a time pulsing after each addition. Process until a dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove from processor, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. You can make the dough the day before and let it refrigerate it overnight.

While tart dough is chilling, you can make the filling.

In a sauté pan, add the onion, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of butter, and the leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the cream and continue cooking over low for about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

After the dough has chilled, preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out the dough and place in a 9×9-inch tart pan. Prick the bottom of the pan with the tines of a fork. Any extra dough can be frozen for another use.

Spread the cooled onion mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the dough-lined pan. Spread the grated cheese on top of the onion mixture.

Slice tomatoes into thin slices and arrange them in a style of your choosing on top of the cheese layer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Once the tomatoes are laid out, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and drizzle over top. Remove the leaves from the remaining sprigs of thyme and sprinkle over top of the tart.

Bake for 45-55 minutes until crust is golden brown and tomatoes are cooked to your liking. Let cool before serving.