Recipe: Tomato Tarte Tatin

Tomorrow on Good Food Robert Wemischner offers a great new spin on the traditional tarte tatin. Instead of apples, he uses tomatoes.

Keep reading for the full recipe…

Caramelized Tomato Tarte

Adapted from The Dessert Architect by Robert Wemischner (Cengage Learning, 2010)

Yield: 12 portions; you may make 4 or 6 portions by reducing ingredients proportionately….

For the tarts, you may either make puff pastry using butter (according to a classic formula) or purchase commercially made puff pastry (Surfas in Culver City carries frozen puff pastry of high quality.)

Then make the following Lemon Clove Syrup and get the tomatoes ready.

Lemon Clove Syrup

3 Lemons

Boiling water to cover the lemons

16 whole cloves

16 oz simple syrup

For the Tomato Tarte:

6 large tomatoes plus 48 small ones, approximately, depending on size (Robert likes to use a mix of heirloom varieties)

Use a Silicone plaque with twelve round indentations, each measuring 4 inches in diameter. Place the plaque onto a baking sheet and then pour about 1 ounce of the lemon clove syrup (from above) into each cavity. (Reserve the remaining syrup to use as a plating sauce). For each tart, place approximately ½ of a large tomato and 4 small tomatoes into the syrup in a visually pleasing arrangement, alternating shapes and colors, as desired. Then place a round of chilled puff pastry on top of the tomatoes. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F. oven, for approximately 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and well-puffed. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and then carefully invert the plaque onto a Silpat lined full-size baking sheet. Carefully remove the plaque, placing onto the tarts any tomatoes that may have stuck in the cavities. Allow the tarts to cool at room temperature. These should be served within a few hours of baking, which is when these are at their best. If holding longer, refrigerate, covered, and then allow the tarts to return to room temperature before serving.

Serve with a good quality vanilla ice cream. Then, if desired, sprinkle with some toasted pine nuts and garnish with a few fresh basil leaves.

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