Tomato Tart 8″ x 8″ gouache and watercolor pencil Sharyn Dimmick
When I started blogging five weeks ago, the first food blog I found that I subscribed to was KristaandJess. Their posts have been arriving regularly in my email box. I always read them. Sometimes I comment. I’ve sighed for their watermelon chips after the end of watermelon season and longed for a juicer to make a variation on their carrot-nectarine smoothie (sans bananas).
Then they posted a link to David Lebovitz’s French Tomato Tart. I looked at it. I posted a question about it. I suggested a crust variation (my Mom’s own pie crust, which you will find in my Gravenstein Apple Pie post). I looked at Lebovitz’s tart again. I read his recipe carefully. And then I went to work.
Mom had made a recipe of pie crust because I was going to make another Gravenstein apple pie. I did that, pulling a paper bag of apples from the back of the fridge and peeling four large apples. But before I put the apple pie in a 400 degree oven, I rolled out a single crust for my fluted porcelain tart pan. I spread the crust with honey mustard, stopping to combine two partly-used jars of honey mustard by adding a little white vinegar to the lighter jar and pouring it through a funnel into the other jar. Then I sliced the huge tomato waiting on the counter — this recipe is an excellent thing to do with a monster-sized tomato — and laid it into the mustard-slathered crust. I added just a touch of olive oil and went out to pick herbs from the front yard, bringing in basil and Thai basil and a handful of chives. I snipped chives over the tomatoes with scissors and tore basil leaves over the top.
Then I went back to the refrigerator for the only cheese remaining in the house besides cream cheese and Parmesan: a chunk of lemon Stiiton that was too sweet to eat in sandwiches. I crumbled the whole thing with my fingers over the top of the tart.
That’s it. No salt. No pepper. Just pastry, sliced tomatoes, the barest whisper of olive oil, some fresh herbs and cheese. Lebovitz uses goat cheese. Krista and Jess used whole wheat cream cheese pastry. I used Madge’s trusty pie crust recipe and the Stilton, but I encourage you to do what I did and use whatever cheese you have on hand as long as it’s not Velveeta or other processed cheese.
It was so good that Mom and I both went back for seconds immediately. It was so good that I started painting a picture of it because I knew I had to post it for you. The tart took all of fifteen minutes to assemble since Mom had already made the crust (I did have to roll it out myself). The only thing that stopped us from eating more of it is that we had apple pie baking in the same oven.
The only thing I have to say besides thank you to Krista and Jess and David Lebovitz for the basic recipe is to say to you, “Make this recipe.” You have to eat this tart during tomato season — it’s that simple. And those of you who live where the tomatoes are not ripe yet, wait and make this when you do have fresh tomatoes.
Simple Tomato Tart
Preheat oven to 400.
Prepare a single pie crust for a tart pan or regular pie tin (I used one of the four crusts produced by my standard pie crust recipe).
Spread prepared mustard of your choice upon the unbaked pastry.
Slice one 1-lb tomato or 2-3 smaller ones. The tomato should cover the bottom crust completely.
Add a very small amount of olive oil.
Season with fresh herbs of your choice.
Top with crumbled cheese or sliced goat cheese or grated Parmesan or whatever you’ve got. (I pretty much covered the top with Stiton and could just see small bits of tomato).
Bake for 45 minutes. Check for browning at around 30 minutes. Remember to turn the oven down 25 degrees if you are using a Pyrex pan. I started my tart at the full 400 degrees for twenty minutes and reduced the temperature to 375 when I put in the apple pie. This produced quite a bit of browning, which we like.
Painting note: for information about “Tomato Tart” or any other original painting, please contact me here.
thekalechronicles 
This recipe looks marvelous. I hope David Leibovitz sees it and gives it a try. The innovative idea of mustard and lemon stilton is brilliant. I know we’ll have another tomato season when it finally turns into fall (maybe winter?) here in Texas and the brutality of all our heat ends. The tomatoes love the reprieve as much as we sentient selves do. I’ll look forward to making it just as you describe.
This sounds so yummy that I can taste it just thinking about it. I’m not a big fan of honey mustard so I’ll try it with a spicy brown, chives, and… decide on the cheese when I’m at the market. Thanks for sharing!
It is really good, Nancy — I don’t think the type of mustard matters much. It would be good with chutney on the bottom, too, especially if you used cheddar cheese.
Thanks for the link! The lemon stilton sounds amazing.
The use of mustard in a tomato tart or pie sounds so interesting, I must try it!
I had never used mustard in a tomato tart before either (but I like mustard in lots of things) — David Lebovitz is a genius.