Upside-Down Tomato Tart
By Adam RiedPublished on May 31, 2021
Time
2¼ hours
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Before You Begin
If you don't have sherry vinegar, cider vinegar is the next best thing. To prevent the tomatoes from leaching too much moisture into the crust, use your fingers or a spoon to remove as much of the gel and seeds as you can. To thaw frozen puff pastry, let it sit either in the refrigerator for 24 hours or on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The dimensions of puff pastry sheets vary by brand; if your pastry will accommodate a 10-inch circle, skip the rolling in step 2. This tart is best eaten within a couple hours of baking. Cut the tart into four wedges and serve it with a salad as a main course, or cut it into six wedges and serve it as an appetizer.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Bring vinegar, sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to simmer in 10-inch ovensafe skillet over medium-high heat, swirling skillet to dissolve sugar. Simmer vigorously, swirling skillet occasionally, until consistency resembles that of maple syrup, about 2 minutes. Add shallot, butter, and 2 teaspoons thyme and whisk until butter is fully incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Remove skillet from heat; add tomatoes and toss to coat lightly with syrup. Arrange tomatoes cut side up in as close to single layer as possible (some overlap is OK; tomatoes will shrink as they cook) and sprinkle with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer skillet to oven and cook until liquid has evaporated and tomatoes are very lightly browned around edges and softened but not fully collapsed, about 1 hour. While tomatoes cook, prepare pastry.
- Roll pastry into 10-inch square on lightly floured counter. Using plate, bowl, or pot lid as template, cut out 10-inch round. Discard trimming. Transfer pastry round to large plate and refrigerate until needed. Remove skillet from oven and place pastry round over tomatoes. Bake until pastry is puffed, crisp, and deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating skillet halfway through baking.
- Let tart cool for 8 minutes. Run paring knife around edge of crust to loosen, then invert plate over skillet. Using pot holders, swiftly and carefully invert tart onto plate (if tomatoes shift or stick to skillet, arrange with spoon). Let cool for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with remaining ½ teaspoon thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Time
2¼ hoursYield
Serves 4 to 6Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
A traditional tarte Tatin is prepared with apples, but here we use the formula as a framework for tomatoes. The savory-sweet fruit pairs beautifully with buttery pastry and a tangy-sweet sherry vinegar syrup (in lieu of the tarte Tatin's caramel) to produce a dish that's great as a light lunch or an appetizer. To ensure a crisp—not soggy—crust, we started by removing the jelly and seeds from plum tomatoes, which have a low moisture content. We reduced the sherry vinegar and sugar syrup to develop some caramelized notes and then finished it with butter, shallot, and thyme. We then roasted the tomatoes in the syrup for a full hour, which not only evaporated any excess moisture but also concentrated their fruity taste, gave their edges some flavorful browning, and enhanced their meaty texture. Finally, we topped the roasted tomatoes with puff pastry, a convenient alternative to pie or biscuit dough that needed only to be thawed, rolled, and cut before it was ready to go into the oven. After about 30 minutes of baking, the pastry was puffed, crisp, and golden brown.
Want more? Read the whole storyBefore You Begin
If you don't have sherry vinegar, cider vinegar is the next best thing. To prevent the tomatoes from leaching too much moisture into the crust, use your fingers or a spoon to remove as much of the gel and seeds as you can. To thaw frozen puff pastry, let it sit either in the refrigerator for 24 hours or on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The dimensions of puff pastry sheets vary by brand; if your pastry will accommodate a 10-inch circle, skip the rolling in step 2. This tart is best eaten within a couple hours of baking. Cut the tart into four wedges and serve it with a salad as a main course, or cut it into six wedges and serve it as an appetizer.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Bring vinegar, sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to simmer in 10-inch ovensafe skillet over medium-high heat, swirling skillet to dissolve sugar. Simmer vigorously, swirling skillet occasionally, until consistency resembles that of maple syrup, about 2 minutes. Add shallot, butter, and 2 teaspoons thyme and whisk until butter is fully incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Remove skillet from heat; add tomatoes and toss to coat lightly with syrup. Arrange tomatoes cut side up in as close to single layer as possible (some overlap is OK; tomatoes will shrink as they cook) and sprinkle with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer skillet to oven and cook until liquid has evaporated and tomatoes are very lightly browned around edges and softened but not fully collapsed, about 1 hour. While tomatoes cook, prepare pastry.
- Roll pastry into 10-inch square on lightly floured counter. Using plate, bowl, or pot lid as template, cut out 10-inch round. Discard trimming. Transfer pastry round to large plate and refrigerate until needed. Remove skillet from oven and place pastry round over tomatoes. Bake until pastry is puffed, crisp, and deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating skillet halfway through baking.
- Let tart cool for 8 minutes. Run paring knife around edge of crust to loosen, then invert plate over skillet. Using pot holders, swiftly and carefully invert tart onto plate (if tomatoes shift or stick to skillet, arrange with spoon). Let cool for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with remaining ½ teaspoon thyme. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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