Some weekend starts on a very lazy note with a cup of hot ginger tea at ten in the morning followed by zero plans to implement. It doesn’t happen often but whenever it does, Arvind takes every opportunity to make the day as unproductive as he can and at times, I tag along with the flow. We order takeout, be a couch potato and watch movies back to back while sipping some wine or beer in between.
Then there are weekends when the poor guy gets so busy with his work that we hate to even call it a weekend. So, while he spends time with his laptop, I try to get busy doing what I love doing. Like, bake a tart, make it look pretty, take out my props and do some photo shoot.
If summer is all about sorbet, ice cream, smoothie, stone fruits and berries. Then summer is also about tomatoes. It’s the best season for juicier, rich in color, plump tomatoes. I haven’t got a chance to try lot different varieties of this very famous fruit, but this summer I was really glad to get my hands on some exquisite kumato tomato, for the first time.
Kumato tomatoes are sweeter than other variety and also considered as gourmet.
If you haven’t seen these before, your initial reaction might not be surprising. It may look rotten to you because of the brown color but touch it to feel the firmness and then give a big bite to enjoy the sweet taste. Like we did.
Tart was on my mind as soon I bought these tomatoes, and to obviously pairs it with basil pesto. After all, isn’t basil and tomato like a marriage made in heaven. Then I decided to make it more filling for lunch and in went some grated paneer. Paneer, also known as Indian Cottage cheese is easily available in any Indian store. If however, you don’t have access to any, you can always replace it with ricotta cheese or even mascarpone.
The outcome of the tart was wonderful. The crust was flaky, the filling was creamy and every bite was delightful.
Tart Crust
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon herb provence
- 5 tablespoon butter (cold and cut in cubes)
- ¼ cup ice water
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk flour, herb provence and salt and keep it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
- Cut in the butter cubes to the flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (If you are using a food processor, just pulse it for about 5 t0 6 times or until the crumbs looks like size of tiny peas. You can also do the same using a fork or your fingertips).
- Pour ice water to the flour mixture.
- Again, using a fork or your fingertips, mix it properly but do not knead it. It will be sticky.
- Do not over-mix the dough. Just pat the lumps into a ball and cover with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Pre heat the oven to 350F
- After an hour, take the dough out. Dust little flour on it and using a rolling pin, roll it to a 9/12 inch round.You might need to add little flour in between as you roll it.
- Transfer it in to the tart pan and cut off the extra dough.
- Poke the crust using a fork and bake it at 350F for about 35 minutes.
Notes
- While making the crust dough you have to work very quick so that the butter doesn't melt from the warmt of your hand.
- Do not knead the dough or try to mix too much.
- The dough can be made in advance, and kept in the refrigerator covered tightly with a plastic wrap.
- herb provence is an Italian mixed dried herb. It can also be replaced with any dried herb of your choice.
Nutrition
pavithra
Awesomeness..........and full of flavors.Yumm and stunning pictures Kankana.
Apu
Looks wonderful, Kankana!
erin @ yummy supper
Kankana, that tart looks heavenly. And yes I agree basil and tomatoes are made for each other. Paneer is such a cool addition. Must try!
By the way do you ever get dry farmed early girls at your market. They don't look especially interesting, but they are by far my favorite tomatoes out there. The sweetness!
Have a great weekend,
xo
E
Tadka Pasta
So pretty..the tomatoes and the tart! Makes me want to run to the kitchen and bake it pronto.
Marta
Your pictures are amazing. So professional. And tart with tomatoes is always a good idea 🙂
Jacqueline
My oh my that tart is exquisite. Beautiful consistency - I could grab a piece off that right off the screen. Wonderful idea to pair it with pesto. I don't recognise the name kumato but I do recognise their appearance. Delicious 🙂
Asmita
Hi Kankana,
This tart looks gorgeous! The pastry is perfectly done and I love the flavors in this. Very beautiful photographs, like always.
Jessie
Gorgeous photos! Beautiful post.
Rose from Magpies Re
Such a good idea!and your weekend sound exactly like ours too.You deal with the latter type much better than me though!
Russell van Kraayenb
This tart looks fantastic! Such a great combination of flavors!
BongMom
Gorgeous pics and I so envy your first kind of weekend 😀 and hey, even the second kind is not bad if the result is such.
Maureen
That tart looks divine! I could look at those pictures for ages without getting bored. 🙂
Keep Calm and Eat On
I had great plans for a tart with home grown tomatoes this summer when I planted my first tomato plants. Naturally i was thinking blog post, after all everything is about blog posts. The sight of what the plants produced makes me hysterical. Same with my basil plants.
This beautiful tart is a perfect subject for a photo shoot.
Anamika@madcooking
I was looking for a perfect tart crust recipe from many days , thank you so much....ur post landed my mailbox at a right time Kankana :). I am going to try this soon! Loved the clicks...
Tes
Wow, what a gorgeous tart! I will try this recipe as soon as I got my oven fix 🙂
IshitaUnblogged
OMG! Amazing photographs of an amazing Tart... could almost smell and taste the filling inside. I want the background! If you ever find a similar bg you'll know where my inspiration came from!
Could you share the lens specification. I love the blurry depth of your photographs.
Kankana Saxena
Thanks dear for your lovely words 🙂 I had to bring down the f to 1.8 to get that blurry background!
IshitaUnblogged
Is that why the foreground is also a bit blurry?
mjskit
I'm like you - when Bobby is working on the weekend, I'm cooking. The smells drive him nuts. 🙂 Your tart and the crust look delicious! Those tomatoes are perfect and I bet they really made a sweet and wonderful tart with a smell that drove Arvind crazy! Summer is definitely about fresh tomatoes!
Monet
Oh tomatoes! They truly are the jewel of summer. And these look just lovely in this tart. I am always up for a summer tart. I would love to have this for dinner tomorrow night. Thank you for sharing! Now off to dream delicious dreams!
Aunt Clara
Beautiful pictures. They are making me drool, I am already planning to make this in the weekend. I will have to use some other type of tomatoes because I don't have those. 🙁
Reem | Simply Reem
You know I crave for weekends that are filled with insane laziness...
Anyways...
This tart looks gorgeous!!
How beautiful... I can eat it and forget my crazy busy madness of every day..
Kankana... I am loving the pics; all of them!! Really beautiful!!