[brighidsdaughter]

I made this for a light dinner main dish last week and it was awesome!

I took some shortcuts, though -- purchased pate brisee, purchased black olive tapenade, and Italian herbs instead of herbs de Provence, since I had all of these on hand already. The only tricky part was flipping the tapenade coated pastry onto the tomatoes & cheese, but I think that was because my tapenade was chunky-style instead of being more of a paste. If I use chunky tapenade again, I'll probably just scatter it over the goat cheese after sprinkling on the herbs.

Simple ingredients, simple preparation, and one of those dishes where the ingredients complement each other to become so much more than they are when taken individually. The flavor was fantastic, and there were only 2 small slices leftover.

I can only imagine how much better it would be with roma/plum tomatoes in season. Can't wait to give it a try next summer, but I'm sure I'll be making it several more times before then!

[msue]

brighidsdaughter,

Since we are in the same general area...

Where did you find decent tomatoes this time of year? I just bought some "on-the-vine's" at Central Mkt, and they were tasteless mush. Yuck.

The only flavor tomatoes I've seen lately are the cherry variety.

That tatin is spectacular, though, isn't it!!!

[Rachel]

Brighidsdaughter, you're right in thinking that a smooth tapenade would solve your problem - that's what I used and it was absolutely no trouble to transfer the pastry to the dish. (I'd also strongly recommend that you use the pate brisee recipe in the book next time you make it - it gives an exceptionally tender crust, and it takes about 5 minutes to make, if that.)

This is probably my favourite savoury recipe in the book (though it faces stiff competition). But for me it's a summer-only recipe - there simply is no such thing as a decent fresh tomato in England in the winter!

[brighidsdaughter]

msue:
The romas came from a basic chain grocery. One of the reasons I decided to make this is because the tomatoes were nicely red & felt ripe. I'm sure that baking them helped to concentrate what flavor there was. Not like summer ones, but I've found that romas have better flavor than others when tomatoes are out of season. That being said, the ones I got for salad this week were tasteless. Should have bought cherrys for that.

Rachel:
I'll definitely make the pate brisee next time -- homemade is always best & pastry making doesn't intimidate me. The bought one I used was good quality & if it hadn't been on hand already, I'd have made it from scratch in a heartbeat.

[esmeralda]

I agree the tart is delicious. I found it a little greasy though (butter in the pate brisee, the tapenade...) - would suggest a lighter pate brisee (less butter +cream/yoghurt) and less oil in the tapenade. Would rather use cherry tomatoes (easier to cut and eat).

[bertrand]

Cette tarte est un véritable délice et est super facile à faire (sauf pour le "retourner de pâte surmontée de tapenade" comment faites-vous?). Je la prépare à chaque fois que j'ai des nouveaux invités, ils s'en lèchent les babines et ils repartent tous avec la recette...
Par contre je n'ai pas encore essayé les variantes proposées dans le livre (avec oignons je crois), j'ai peur de moins aimer, je me trompe?

Merci Clotilde pour tes délicieuses recettes et tes tout aussi délectables anecdotes.