Tessa Kiros’ Tomato Tart

If strawberries are the kings of summer, tomatoes are at the very least its empresses. Few things are more delicious than a ripe, juicy tomato. Except, that is, Tessa Kiros’ tarte à la tomate. Ideal picnic food. Kiros prefers to serve it simply with a salad and some goat’s cheese. This summer tart needs nothing more.

Method

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until you have a coarse, sandy texture. Add a few pinches of salt and enough iced water to roughly form a ball of dough with your hands.

Dust the work surface with flour and place the dough on it. Use your hands or a rolling pin to shape it into a rectangle. Fold the sheet of dough in half (like a sheet of paper) and roll it out again. Repeat this 4–5 more times (the dough does not need to go in the fridge in between). Wrap the dough in cling film and
place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Dust a 24 cm-diameter springform tin with flour and preheat the oven to 190 °C. Slide a baking sheet that the springform tin will fit on into the centre of the oven. On a floured surface, roughly roll the dough out into a circle slightly larger than the base of the tin, approximately 28 cm. Carefully place the dough in the tin and lift the edges about 6 cm before folding them over to create a rim 2–3 cm high.

Arrange the tomato slices over the base as if dealing playing cards on a card table – place them wherever they fall, but make sure they overlap without any gaps (you can also arrange them from the centre in overlapping concentric circles). Scatter the thyme leaves over the tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper if you like, and place the tin on the baking sheet in the oven.

Bake the tart for 45–50 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the tomatoes have taken on a little colour here and there. Increase the oven temperature to 200 °C and bake the tart for another 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are darker in colour and have small charred spots. There will probably still be some liquid on the tomatoes, but that is not a problem.

Remove the tart from the oven on the baking sheet and then place the tin on a rack, so that the liquid remains on the sheet. Remove the outer ring of the tin once it has cooled sufficiently. Serve the tart slightly cooled or at room temperature, sprinkled with a little extra salt for a crunchy accent and, if you like, drizzled with some olive oil.

Recipe from: Tessa Kiros – De Franse Wereldkeuken, published by Terra Lannoo, € 29,99.
Image: Manos Chatzikonstantis