If you’re like us, you are doing everything you can to use every last summer tomato you get your hands on. That flavor. So laser-concentrated from all those days coaxed to fullness under the sun’s rays, sweet and tangy simultaneously. It’s like nothing else, which is why — truly — the simplest treatment of them where their pure, heat-kissed flavor is the star are the best versions. And luckily this week, we’re still getting a nice boost from that end-of-summer sunshine.
Westhampton-based writer and investigative reporter Isabel Vincent isn’t merely a prolific author of deep-dive, vigorously researched non-fiction tomes, she’s also the kind of home cook who’s epic meals belie the calm with which she approaches their construct. For Vincent, it’s all about finding truth, whether it’s the heart of the story about two opera-loving English sisters during World War II who risked their lives to save dozens of Jewish European artists and their families in her book “Overture of Hope,” the recipes discovered from an unlikely friendship with an elderly gentleman that soothed both hunger and an empty heart in her gorgeous memoir “Dinner with Edward” — or in exposing the beautiful and bright flavors of summer tomatoes in this simple but unforgettable tart.
“I actually learned this from the mother of a friend of my daughter’s in Rio de Janeiro,” says Vincent, a native Canadian of Portuguese origins who lived and worked for several years in Brazil as a reporter. “She was very French. Used to give her kids chocolate pressed into a baguette as a snack!” That French culinary clarity of excellent ingredients elevated to take center stage traveled well from the southern hemisphere, as remembering them is nearly as easy as putting them together.
The recipe below is good for an 8-inch tart pan, but Vincent, an intuitive cook, will take it up or down if she wants to make a smaller or larger version by holding to using “equal parts water and canola oil, and then adding flour and a pinch of salt until I have a dough which I can press into a pie pan.”
The secret to keeping this tart in tact while it bakes is to slice the tomatoes on the thinner side. Making half-moon chunks might look prettier in a photo (we know, we tried), but thicker slices mean more juice being released during baking, constituting a soggy-bottom crust of constant sorrow. Keep the slices at a third to a quarter of an inch and your tart will be juicy on top and crispy on the bottom.
There are a multitude of tomatoes still on farm stands — we found the ones in this recipe at Kilb’s Farm Stand on Shelter Island, one of our favorite stops for both the vegetables and the chance to have a chat with Al and Diane Kilb or one of their wonderful daughters — or maybe even growing from your own waning plants in pots or garden. Grab them before the birds do and make this two-slice tart (because you won’t be able to just eat one) for an easy lunch, light supper — or heck, even breakfast — ASAP. Because, friends, time and tomatoes are fleeting.
Last-gasp-of-summer tomato tart
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup ice water
- 3 to 4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
- 4 to 5 medium Early Girl tomatoes, sliced in 1/4 to 1/3-inch rounds
- 5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
- sea salt, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven or toaster oven to 375° F.
- In a mixing bowl with dough hook attached, add in flour and salt. Stir to incorporate.
- With the mixer on the slowest speed, slowly add in the canola oil. When the dough becomes pebble-like in texture, add the ice water, one spoonful at a time, until fully incorporated and the dough comes together.
- Press the dough into the tart pan, making sure to cover all the edges and without any holes in the bottom.
- Sprinkle the feta cheese over the entire bottom of the tart.
- Top with the sliced tomatoes, arranging in a circular pattern, overlapping the edges of each slice slightly.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and scatter the thyme sprigs on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the edges of the tart are golden brown. Serve warm.
