As is usual during the first few weeks of September, it has been busy! Bowls & baskets full of fruits & vegetables line the kitchen floor, counter tops piled high with jars of preserves, a sink constantly covered in mud, roots or peelings, a fridge bursting with colourful odd shaped bits & an oven that seems to never not be in use. It’s a case of all or nothing when it comes to growing your own, some weeks you’re constantly checking, patiently waiting for things to ripen, then others, like this one, everything suddenly ripens at once & you’ve got more produce than you know what to do with. This usually happens at the end of the season, come September though & I’d like to think that over the years I’ve developed a fine tuned system to use, prep or store all of it, yet I never feel prepared & here we are, in a crazy time rushing around the place trying to either preserve, give away or eat all of it.
My kitchen seems to constantly smell of vinegar at the moment as pickling & chutney making are my usual go to’s to use up large quantities of things. Usually this is where that last glut of tomatoes end up, even those unripened green ones. However, this year thanks to the additional polytunnel in the garden, I’ve been trying to grow a few different varieties this year, leaving me with an eclectic mix of small, gigantic, colourful, some weird & wonderful tomatoes. Something in me is reluctant to simply chuck these beautiful fruits in a chutney this year, I’ll save that for the moneymakers & gardener’s delights so here is a simple little creation that I made for tea this week, a tomato & mascarpone tart. I threw this together with pretty much whatever I had in the fridge at the time & as something that was just quick & simple to make. I was pleasantly surprised with just how flavourful this simple throw together meal turned out, I figured it’s worthy of sharing here because I’ll definitely be making this one again. Layers of crisp, flaky puff pastry (store bough because, who has the time for that?!), creamy mascarpone cheese, herby pesto & juicy tomatoes, sounds good right? Even better when it only takes 5 minutes to prepare though!
TOMATO & MASCARPONE TART
Ingredients:
- One roll of ready-rolled puff pastry (375g)
- 80g mascarpone cheese
- 3 tsp basil pesto
- 400g – 450g mix of tomatoes
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- Black pepper
- 1 egg, beaten
Method:
- Begin by rolling out the ready to use puff pastry & place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment
- Next, use a knife to carefully score a 1 inch edge all the way around the sheet of pastry (creating a smaller rectangle inside the pastry sheet)
- Spread the mascarpone all over the smaller rectangle of pastry, leaving the edges clear
- Now, take the pesto & add small dollops of it all over the mascarpone
- Next, use a sharp knife to slice the tomatoes then arrange these on top of the mascarpone, again keeping the scored edges clear
- Sprinkle the sea salt & a good crack of black pepper over the tomatoes
- Finally, brush the 1 inch edge of pastry with the beaten egg
- Bake the tart in the oven at 200C for 25-30 minutes, until the the pastry is golden & risen
- Serve whilst still warm
