Now this was a lovely gardening surprise! These little beauties grew from some great little seedlings that I bought from Bunnings. It’s a trailing tomato plant, and I unfortunately planted my tomato plants too close together, so I have to pretty much climb into the plants to pick them! When I plant these again next Spring, I think they’d do really well along the edge of my garden beds.
They are so super-dooper pretty. And delicious. And juicy.
After picking them I put them in this little pie dish, just because it was the right size, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about tarts.
I wanted to keep the tomatoes as ‘the hero of the dish’ as they’d say on Masterchef. So, I whipped up a Stephanie Alexander pastry (see below), briefly baked it, threw on the tomatoes, some fresh basil, dollops of ricotta and S&P.
When it popped out of the oven, I gave it a quick drizzle with fancy olive oil.
So good. So I made it again. Then next night!
Taken from Stephanie Alexander, The Cook’s Companion, pg 965
Polenta crust:
- 3/4 cup fine polenta
- 115g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 75g butter
- 1/2 cup cream
Mix the polenta, flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor. Add butter and process until the butter pieces are pea-sized. Add cream until dough comes together. Refridgerate until needed (at least 30 mins).
This made enough for two tarts. The recipe is designed for a ‘closed’ pie, so it didn’t need blind-baking. However, because of my tart-style, I pricked the base with a fork and blind-baked it for about 10 mins, then added the filling and baked it for another 15-20 minutes or so.
Also, because of the juiciness of my tomatoes, I cut them and left them to drain on some muslin cloth for a while before constructing the tart.
I have plenty more tomatoes. If you have any recommended recipes, let me know!
A cuppa and a pikelet 