How to make a tomato tart:
Make a pie crust
My standard process for making (two) crusts: just under 2 cups of flour, one stick of butter, salt, water to incorporate.
For these tarts, I used one half cup of whole wheat flour, 1 full cup of regular all purpose flour ( or one could use pastry flour, but not a high gluten bread flour).
Mixed about 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed with the 1.5 cups of flour. My friend Michele tells me that the flaxseed helps hold the dough together, almost like using an egg.
You’re going to add a pinch or two of fine-ground salt, too, before you get to the step of adding water and bringing this (short-crust) dough together.
Cut a stick of cold butter into small pieces and cut it into the flour mix. By ‘cut-in’ I mean rub the butter into the flour with your hands into all of the butter is less than pea-sized. A pastry cutter can also do this job, but hands do the best job.
When the flour, salt and butter are mixed as shown here, then add about 1/4 cup of cold water.
According to Michele, she fluffs the dough with a fork, lightly bringing the dough together. It’s important not to overwork the dough. So, if it’s not coming together and seems crumbly, add another tablespoon of water and try again to bring together. Add water until it comes together nicely like playdough.
When close, I circle the bowl, using centrifical force to pull the dough together without touching it.
Take the ball, and cover with plastic, and refrigerate.
Bring the dough out of the fridge and roll to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Fit it into a greased tart pan.
Get together the tomatoes, herbs, 2 eggs and goat cheese. If everything isn’t ready, you can put the tart pan with crust back into the fridge.
Use the rolling pin to cut the extra crust from the tart.
Press the crust against the fluted tart pan. Pre-heat oven to 350oF.
Fill the crust
Spread good quality Dijon mustard on the bottom of the unbaked pie crust. Cut ripe tomatoes into wedges. Arrange them in a circular pattern in the tart, adding fresh herbs like basil and parsley. Salt and pepper the tomatoes.
In a beaker for an inversion blender add 2 to 4 ounces of goat cheese and 2 eggs. Purée.
Alternatively you can add the herbs (basil and parsley) to the beaker, but the finished tart will be more green in appearance. See this version, made 10/13/2025 ->
Pour the cheese mixture over the tomatoes and fill the tart shell evenly. Place the tart on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Let rest outside the oven for at least 10 minutes.
My tart pan has a floating bottom. So I can set it on a cup and the outside ring will drop. You can then cut the tart on the metal bottom, set on the table on a trivet.
This tart (made 10/08) was decorated with a few sprigs of rosemary and a basil leaf that were set on top before baking. The rosemary became crisp in the oven and very pleasant to eat.
The Wine Accompaniment
Our wine club offered a Semillon from Hunter Valley, Australia, some months ago and we liked it very much. I bought this wine, a different maker, Leogate Estates, from Kaune’s Market on the day of the first tart, Wednesday, the 8th, because Kaune’s offers 10% off liquor on Wednesday.
- Look: Medium body, stands up to food
- Smell: winterish fruit like pears
- Taste: pear, apple, citrus (bright not grapefruity)
Tart was served with the wine and an avocado soup. (Soup consists of vegetable broth, sautéed onion, a little (end of clamshell) spinach, and avocado, all puréed by the immersion blender.
