I love how this recipe makes the most of fall vegetables by dressing them up in a little pastry and adding some really great cheese. These large tarts are a nice lunch or dinner. We served them with a few salads, but you can experiment. If you don't have tart pans, don't worry—I improvised and used a large muffin tin to bake them and it worked fine. If you aren't into making your own pastry, you could even buy tart shells.
A good way to make this an appetizer would be to make in regular sized tart shells and serve with the tomato sauce on the side to drizzle over. Feel free to play around with the veggies and cheese, swapping some zucchini for roasted corn, or the goat cheese for feta. Either way, have fun with this!
Pastry:
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbsp cold water
Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture resembled coarse crumbs. Stir in the water with a fork until just combined, then turn mixture out onto a lightly floured counter and bring together with your hands, trying not to handle it too much. Let the dough sit and rest for about 20 minutes on the counter, covered. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece out to about 1/8 inch thick, then cut into a 6 inch circle. Set aside.
Filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup diced green zucchini
1 cup diced yellow zucchini
1/2 cup thinly sliced leeks
1/2 cup diced red peppers
1 cup green or yellow beans, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
4 oz fresh goat cheese (I used one rolled in herbs) In a pan over medium heat, heat up your olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until translucent and soft. Stir in zucchinis, leeks, peppers, and beans, continuing to cook and stir until they are just crisp tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil, parsley, and thyme.
Assembly:
1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce (or home made, if you wish), warmed The original recipe called for tart shells, but I didn't have the right sized tart pans. What's a girl to do? I had already mounded the filling on the uncooked pastry! Here's what you do: If you have 4 inch tart shells, line them with the pastry, allowing the dough to extend past the edges of the shell. Mound 1/2 cup filling into the tart shells, dotting with goat cheese. Fold the pastry up and around the filling, tucking it in. Now, what to do if you don't have tart pans? I mounded the filling on the pastry, dug out my large muffin tin (not a regular sized one-too small!), and gently set the filled pastry into a muffin cup. It didn't quite fit all the way in, which was fine—I tucked it on the top as best I could, pushing it down slightly-not all the way, which was fine-as the tarts cooked, they sunk farther into the muffin tin anyhow. Bake tarts until golden and cooked through—about 20 minutes. To serve the tarts, spread 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce on a plate, and set a tart in it.
Serves 4
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