Ratatouille Tart

For the 10,000 photos I’ve taken in the last two months, I’m a bit camera shy. Thus, it’s a complete and total surprise (to me at least) that when selecting photos for this recipe, I selected one of myself.  I guess there’s a first time for everything!

This Ratatouille Tart is a dish I’ve been jonesing to make ever since I came across Deb’s variation over at Smitten Kitchen.  Deb’s recipe is absolutely ingenious: flaky, savory pastry crust topped with roasted fresh vegetables and sprinkled with crumbled feta, the result is as flavorful as it is good looking.  The best aspect of this dish is its insane versatility: Deb suggests serving it as an entree, or side-dish but also cracking a fresh poached egg alongside the tart.  The result? A flavorful combination of pastry, vegetables, cheese, and eggs.  What a genius this cooking woman is.

Although I didn’t prepare this version of Deb’s Ratatouille Tart with an egg for breakfast or brunch, I did pair it with the recent Pâté de Canard en Croûte dish for my French dinner party several weeks ago.  This tart was prepared as an after-thought–what if we needed another side dish?–and was devoured way before the duck was. I guess people like their vegetables with a little bit of savory pastry.

Ratatouille Tart

This recipe is adapted from Deb’s version over at Smitten Kitchen.  The original may be found here.

Ingredients:

* 1 zucchini, washed and sliced into circular rounds

* 1 medium-sized eggplant, washed and cut into circular rounds

* 1 squash, washed and sliced into circular rounds

* 1 red bell pepper, washed, de-stemmed, and de-seeded, and sliced into circular rounds

* basil infused olive oil, to taste

* salt and pepper, to taste

* 1 sheet butter pastry (i.e., Pillsbury), or homemade butter crust, rolled out and ready to use

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Begin by prepping your vegetables: slice zucchini, eggplant, squash, and bell pepper.  Set aside.

2.) Roll out butter pastry and line a large baking sheet with pastry.

3.) Now, get your vegetable-tart-zen-face on: fill tart with zucchini, squash, eggplant, and bell pepper.  For this recipe, I chose to integrate each vegetable instead of doing a single line of each vegetable.  Once filled with vegetables, roll up leftover edges of pastry to create a thick crust, or barrier all around the dish.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and any italian herb you prefer (i.e., basil, thyme, etc.).

4.) Bake in oven for 15-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown, ad vegetables are fully cooked.

5.) Cut the tart much the way you would a square pizza into square pieces.  Plate and serve.  Makes 4 servings.  Enjoy!

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