Tomato Goat Cheese Tart w/ a Cornmeal Crust

Oh hi there! Its been a while. I have been totally checked out recently. The whole summer really (yikes its august!!). My excuse is that as of last Wednesday, Chris and I are home owners AAAAND Brooklyn residents!! How wild is that! Brooklyn!

I am pretty excited about it all, especially now that the process is over and we are moved in…kinda. It still looks like a jumble of mismatched furniture and there was only a minor blip involving our dining table (and most favoritest possession ever) not fitting up the elevator or stairs. But we will get there eventually, slowly but surely.

The kitchen has brand new appliances which is fantastic and a giant window with a view all the way to the verrazano bridge. Of course I can’t help but want to make minor changes like knocking out the wall and refinishing every surface and thinking that I could do it all myself. I mean i’ve never DIYed anything in my life but wall demolition seems like a good place to start.

I’ll be at home depot if you need me.

But I’ll save those projects for the winter when there aren’t delicious tomatoes calling to me from the garden. This tart is nothing fancy but its darn tasty. The cornmeal dough is so good but if you really aren’t up for making it you could use puff pastry instead. And if goat cheese ain’t your thang, use whatever you like – I would only caution against mozzarella because it has so much water that when combined with the tomatoes will make for a very soggy bottom (and we don’t want that!).

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Tomato Goat Cheese Tart w/ a Cornmeal Crust

Yield: 1 tart / 6-8 slices

Ingredients

1. 2-3 large juicy tomatoes

2. 4oz chevre

3. salt and pepper

4. fresh herbs of choice (optional)

cornmeal tart dough:

1. 1¾ cup flour

2. ½ cup cornmeal (i like a medium to coarse ground)

3. 1½ tsp kosher salt

4. ½ tsp black pepper

5. 8oz unsalted butter, cubed and cold

6. ¼ - ⅓ cup buttermilk, cold

Instructions

Make the tart dough:

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor with the blade attachment and pulse once or twice to mix.

2. Add the cold butter and pulse again until it looks uniformly like wet sand (about 10 pulses if you are a numbers person). I like to stick my hand in there and just make sure there isnt some rogue lump of butter.

3. With the processor on, slowly pour in the buttermilk (remember you might not need all of it!). As soon as the dough catches and becomes a kind of ball/clump, stop mixing and stop pouring. The dough should be very moist but not wet (see pic #2).

4. Press the dough into your tart pan - I use my hands at first and then a large, flat bottomed cup measure to get the dough into the corners and up the sides. I like to put the tart onto a sheet pan before going any further so I don't ruin it by putting my hand up through the removable bottom.

5. Let the dough chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes or up to a few days.

Assemble and Bake:

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F and slice the tomatoes - I like thick slabs so they don't become complete mush in the oven (about ¼ inch I suppose).

2. Crumble the chevre into the tart and if using any fresh herbs add them now, under the tomatoes so they do not burn in the oven.

3. Arrange the tomato slices in one layer (they can be slightly overlapping) and season generously with salt and black pepper.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, until the edges of the tart are golden brown. Serve warm or at room temp - I also like to add a flourish of coarse sea salt for look and taste.

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