Summer Tomato Tarte Recipe by Danielle Steckler

 

Recently I hosted a small dinner for Rachel Craven’s designs and I was thrilled to have lovely local Angelena Danielle Steckler from Paper Palate prepare the food. On her site you can read about her Angeleno roots and how food artistry took root in her at a young age. Danielle and co creator Lucy created a divine light summer dinner that included an incredible plum and ricotta salad with crispy kale, and this tomato tarte (recipe below) that was simply perfect! She of course uses all local farm market ingredients.

Recipe for Tomate Tarte

for pastry:

1 1/4 cup flour

6 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
4 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black or pink peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 plus tablespoons of ice water
pie weights ( i use 1 lb. of pinto beans or you can use rice)
9″ tart pan with removable sides
parchment or foil

for filling:
2 balls of fresh mozzarella thinly sliced
1/2 cup of pesto
1 plus pound of heirloom tomatoes sliced (get multiple colors)

for pesto:
2 cups of basil ( i used purple from my garden but you can easily use green)
1/4 cup of olive oil or more to your desired thickness
1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan
1 clove of garlic
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

to make pastry:
in a food processor pulse the flour, butter, shortening, parmesan, pepper and salt till it resembles a corse meal. drizzle ice water a tablespoon at a time till the pastry holds together. roll into a ball, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. chill for one hour. do not over work the dough or it will loose it’s flakiness.

roll out dough to 12″ diameter so it will fill the 9″ tart pan. roll pin over edges to cut pastry to fit. lightly prick tart all over with fork. line with tin foil or parchment and fill with weights.

bake in 375 oven for 20 minutes, carefully remove foil with weights and continue to cook for 15 minutes or till golden. cool in pan on rack.

to make pesto:
combine all ingredients in blender and slowly add oil to desired consistency, i like it a little on the thick side for this dish.

to make tart:
remove tart pastry from pan and place on serving platter. drizzle one third of the pesto onto bottom of tart. then layer mozzarella slightly overlapping and drizzle with next third of pesto. layer tomatoes overlapping on top of pesto. i like to add a little more olive oil to the last bit of pesto and drizzle that on top. garnish with fresh basil leaves.