Tuesday, July 16, 2013

TWD -- A Half-sized Tart

A half-sized tart made with a pastry crust
What do you do when a recipe calls for phyllo dough and there is none to be had in the small town in which you live? Substitute. So my Summer Vegetable Tart was made with pastry dough, a supply of which I always keep in my freezer. And a 9" tart seemed awfully big for two people when the recipe appears to be one that needs to be eaten soon after it was made, not days later in the form of leftovers.

So I opted for a 7" tart instead and by cutting the recipe in half, everything worked out just fine. I followed the recipe exactly, but added a bit more thyme. I figured the small amount called for in the recipe once cut in half would be minuscule.

I started by blind-baking my crust, using dried beans as my pie weights. I keep a parcel of dried beans wrapped in foil on my baking shelf and use the same dried beans every time I need to blind bake.
Pie crust pricked with a fork
Using dried beans as pie weights
After letting the crust cool, I sauteed the vegetables, added the goat cheese and scooped the mixture into the cooled crust. I let the mixture cool to room temperature, then cut the tart into wedges and tried it -- delicious. I will definitely make this again, but experiment
with other vegetables. Like everyone else in my area of Ohio, I have a wealth of zucchini right now. I think I will cut back a little on the red pepper, keep the mushrooms and onion and add a handful of sliced zucchini.