Tomato tarts au gratin

Don’t you just love the colours of fall? Reds, yellow, orange, purple. It reminded me of a recipe I tried a few weeks ago and haven’t shared with you yet. When I was in Paris early September, I bought these amazing colourful and tasty tomatoes at the indoor market Le Marché des Enfants Rouges in the friendly Le Marais neighbourhood. I had never seen this mix of coloured tomatoes before. Where I live, they only sell red tomatoes. After some research and pondering what to do with them, I got inspired by a recipe in the book La Tartine Gourmande. As usual, I made it my own by altering, and the result was amazing, if I say so myself. The tomatoes were an explosion of flavours I had never tasted before. Some were sweet, others spicy, or fresh. I topped them with manchego cheese and also used red onions and Italian herbs. And let’s not forget the crunch from the dough. Can you imagine what all of that taste like when combined? Not to mention the aroma it spreads while roasting and baking. I made small ones, one-person portions, and served them with arugula.

Scroll down to the bottom for the recipe!

Ingredients

• a pack of quiche dough, or make your own
• 100 gr manchego cheese
• fresh mixed Italian herbs (thyme, sage, basil, rosemary, oregano)
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
• tablespoon brown cane sugar
• 1 red onion thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• assortment of small/cherrie tomatoes, halved

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 160°C
• Oil tart molds and set aside
• In a pan, bake the onions, bay leaf, and thyme in olive oil
• Lower heat and add the chopped sage, basil and oregano, and the balsamic vinegar
• After 10 minutes, take it off the heat, discard the bay leaf, and set aside
• Put the tomatoes cut side facing down in an oven dish and sprinkle the sugar and some oil on top
• Place the baking dish in the oven and roast the tomatoes for about 30 minutes until they look soft and start wrinkling
• Remove the tomatoes from the oven and turn up the heat to 180°C
• Roll the dough and cut it in circles. Cover the molds, and make some holes in the surface of the dough with a fork
• Place them in the oven until golden brown (about 30 min) but not quite ready
• Take them out, and fill them with the onions and herbs
• Arrange the tomatoes on the onions until completely covered and grate some manchego cheese on top of the tomatoes
• Place the tarts in the oven until the cheese has melted and the dough is brown
• Add a little thyme for colour

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