Tomato Tart

Ingredients

• 400g large tomatoes (4)
• About 200g of cherry tomatoes (see below)
• 70g shallot (2) or onion (½)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 200g shop-bought short-crust pastry
• 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon of dried oregano)

Preparation Time: 25 minutes + 30 minutes pastry chilling
Cooking Time: 30 minutes for the filling + 40 minutes
Serves: 4

Method

1. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about ½cm and then put the pastry into a flan ring or a flan tin (with a removable bottom), pressing it into the corners and leaving on the overhanging excess. Put this on a baking tray, cover it with cling-film/plastic-wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. Peel and dice the shallot, finely chop the garlic, cut the large tomatoes into quarters, cut each cherry tomato in half.
3. In a saucepan, heat the oil over a medium heat and then put in the shallot or onion and garlic and cook it until it has become soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
4. Add the large tomato quarters and cook them for 20 minutes.
5. Using a stick blender or a liquidizer, blend the tomato mixture and push it through a sieve into a bowl.
6. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
7. Remove the pastry from the fridge, prick a few holes into the bottom with a fork, line it with a sheet of greaseproof paper, tin foil or a triple layer of cling-film/plastic-wrap and pour in enough baking beans to fill the pastry case (you can use dried beans, rice or flour if you don’t have ceramic baking beans).
8. Put the pastry into the oven and cook it for 15 minutes, then take it out of the oven, remove the baking beans using the liner and put it back into the oven for a further 10 minutes before removing it from the oven.
9. Pour the blended tomato into the pastry case and spread it around so that it completely covers the bottom of the pastry.
10. Place the cherry tomato halves, cut side down, on top of the blended tomato mixture, until the entire tart is covered (the amount of cherry tomatoes will depend largely on how big they are). Then sprinkle over the oregano and put the tart back into the oven for 12 minutes.
11. Remove the tart from the oven and cut off the excess pastry by making horizontal cuts, outwards from the centre of the tart, to avoid spilling pastry crumbs into the middle. Then brush each cherry tomato with a little olive oil.
12. Remove the tart from the flan ring or flan tin, cut into slices and serve.

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Useful Information

Can it be frozen? No.
Can it be prepared in advance? Yes, it can be finished up to 1 day in advance.
Will leftovers be nice? Yes, for up to 1 day.

Notes