Heard on the Weather Channel:
“Now we have the pictures to show you what ten inches look like.”
Granted, it was about the rain in Houston, but that line just stuck out (oh, God, no more puns!) and caught my attention.
This is one of my favorite appetizers to make. It’s a caprese tart(let).
First, make a pastry shell. (You can use a store bought pastry shell if you want, but don’t get the stuff already in the pan, please. Those are usually sweet, and you need something that will be OK for a savory tart.) My recipe is easy enough, especially if you have a food processor.
1 cup all-purpose flour (though I used cake flour for this one and it was SUPER flaky. Hard to handle the dough, though, because it was so soft.)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
Put the dry ingredients in your food processor and pulse to mix. Add the cold butter and pulse in 1-second bursts (about 10 or 15 pulses) until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the egg, and pulse to incorporate. Add the yolk and pulse until the mixture forms a ball. Pull from the bowl of the processor, and form into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to two days.
When you are ready to make your pastry, remove it from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface. Shoot for a uniform 1/8-inch thickness.
Roll the pastry up on your rolling pin and then unroll over a 9- or 10-inch tart pan. Press the pastry into the sides of the pan, and trim the edges.
While your pastry dough rests, you can prepare the fixins. For this go around, I used a fresh tomato from the farmer’s market, but good plum tomatoes from the grocery work well, too, as long as they are GOOD, and not mealy. I used about six leaves of fresh basil, and two golf-ball sized balls of fresh mozzarella. I also used a very slight sprinkling of shredded mozzarella when I assembled the whole thing, just for “glue.”
So, to assemble, spread the shredded mozzarella (a scant quarter cup, if that much) on the bottom of the pastry. Then spread the tomatoes on top. Add the mozzarella slices in the empty spaces around the tomatoes. I try to avoid putting the cheese on top of the tomato. Scatter the basil (cut chiffonade style) over the top. A few turns of fresh pepper, a pinch of salt, and a drizzle of olive oil finishes it off.
Heat the oven to 400° and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it, and enjoy!
