Spiralling, But Make It Pretty
Tomato-Zucchini Tart
By Chef Rachel Globensky
Here is a tomato–zucchini tart featuring summer produce and a good amount of Parmesan. If you garden around here, chances are you’ve got more zucchini and tomatoes than you know what to do with—and the neighbours have stopped appreciating “surprise” porch deliveries. This is an easy, good-looking way to use them up, and one that might really be welcome if you left it on someone’s doorstep! It works with homemade or store-bought pie crust, pairs nicely with an arugula salad and a drizzle of balsamic glaze, and fits in just as well at lunch or brunch as it does as an appetizer or dinner—basically, the jack-of-all-trades of late-summer pie.
Makes 1 pie to serve 3–6 people
Ingredients
1 pie crust*, thawed and rolled into a 12-inch circle
¼ c rich olive oil
3 cloves garlic
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp cracked black pepper
½ c shredded Parmesan cheese
2 small zucchini
4 or 5 Roma or plum tomatoes
*pie crust can be homemade if you’re feeling ambitious, and store-bought if you’re realistic
Preparation
Step 1
Place pie crust on parchment-lined baking sheet and preheat oven to 400°F.
Step 2
Mix olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper together well and brush half of it on the pastry, right to the edges.
Step 3
Sprinkle half the Parmesan over the pie crust.
Step 4
Slice zucchini and tomatoes to ⅛” thick with a mandoline or a very sharp knife. Starting from the centre of the pastry, alternate the slices, overlapping prettily in a spiral until you run out of crust, vegetables, or patience.
Step 5
Brush the remaining garlic oil over the top, season again, and sprinkle on the rest of the Parmesan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the veggies have that just-roasted look. Remove from the oven, top with 4–5 leaves of basil, julienned, some balsamic glaze, or olive oil.