Serves: 4 – 6
Cost: ~€4.20
Preparation time: ~45 minutes
Calories: ~640 per serving, if divided by 4 people
Joy of joys, I just discovered that one can actually buy puff pastry in France! Call me silly, and indeed, people who live in France, or near France already will probably be face-palming at my previous stupidity but seriously… in England it’s sold frozen in thick blocks. To use it, you have to defrost it and then roll it out to the desired thickness. It never occurred to me that it would be sold with the ready-to-cook pizza dough and shortcrust pastry in the chiller cabinet, and as a result I just assumed that it was just one of those things that aren’t really sold here. Silly me! Naturally, it is sold and in many different varieties. Thick, thin, sweet, savoury, low fat, regular. This is just great because I love the stuff and while I am a big fan of making your own doughs and pastries (I’d always make my own shortcrust and flaky pastry), when even the “quickest” puff pastry can take ~2-3 hours to make, what with all the resting time, and even famous, professional chefs are saying that bought puff pastry is excellent and a more than adequate alternative to the home-made variety… well, there’s not really much contest.
So, what does the appearance of puff pastry mean for me? Well – a whole lot of fun, that’s what! I can make all sorts of wonderful tarts, pies and pastry-based awesomeness now, starting with today’s tart. The original recipe I saw was courgette only but to me it seemed rather dull. I wanted something both with a bit of colour and zing, as well as a bit of creaminess so I went for tomatoes and a bit of feta as well. No matter how you decide to customise the dish, I would recommend keeping the feta in there as it really bulks it out and gives a feeling that it’s a full meal, as opposed to just a light starter or snack. I’d recommend serving it up with some new potatoes or a good salad. My wife and I actually finished off the whole tart in one go, but I didn’t bother making any accompaniment and we were pretty hungry 🙂
In other news – I did a bit of shopping today. It’s strange how buying tins in various shapes and sizes is my idea of good fun! I also got a new sugar and oil thermometer and a pastry bag (it was actually a pastry “gun”, although it got very good reviews). Can’t wait for that to be delivered because I already have some great ideas on what to do with it all so stay tuned for that. This weekend I’ll be cooking up a couple of Swedish dishes which I’m looking forward to sharing with you all as well!
Have a great remainder of the week – if you’re like me and get to enjoy a bank holiday tomorrow then have a wonderful day off, but if not then cheer up – it’s only two days of the week left until the weekend! See you back here on Saturday for a cookie with a twist 🙂
Courgette, Tomato and Feta Cheese Tart
[learn_more caption=”Video Recipe”]
Ingredients
- 1 pack of Puff Pastry (~350g)
- ~2 Courgettes (a.k.a. zucchinis)
- ~5 medium Tomatoes
- ~130g Feta Cheese
- 1 Red Onion
- 1 tbsp Caster Sugar
- 2 tbsps Olive Oil, plus extra for drizzling
- Juice from half a Lemon
- Small handful of fresh Thyme
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Start off by preheating your oven to 220 degrees Celsius and then take your puff pastry and roll it out to a circle, roughly 30cm in diameter and about 4mm thick. If it’s already circular in shape, like the stuff I buy, then awesome – unroll it, job done! Oil an oven tray – a pizza tray is perfect for this – and place the disc of pastry on top. Prick it all over with a fork and allow to rest in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Peel and finely chop the red onion and then heat the 2 tbsps of Olive Oil in a pan until very hot. Add in the red onion and cook through until softened. Add the 1 tbsp of Caster Sugar and continue to cook, stirring well, for another couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Meanwhile, wash and slice your tomatoes and courgettes finely. You want the slices to be ~3mm thick. They should be flexible, without being too translucent. You may find a mandoline is useful for chopping the courgettes, though a good, sharp knife will also do the job well. Once you’ve cut the courgettes, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and then toss in the courgettes and boil for 30 seconds, just to start the cooking process and ensure they’re well done on the tart later. After 30 seconds, drain immediately and pat the slices dry on a cloth.
- Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and then spread the red onion thinly over the pastry base. Next, start arranging the vegetables on top of the onion. Starting from the outside, almost next to the edge, make an overlapping ring, and then work inwards, making further rings, each one slightly overlapping the outer one. Depending on the ratio of courgette to tomato you may want to do two slices of courgette to one slice of tomato, or something like this. Finish off by crumbling the feta in small pieces over the top.
- Drizzle the tart with a little oil and place into the oven for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes have elapsed, remove the tart briefly and sprinkle over some torn up sprigs of thyme, before returning to the oven once more to finish cooking. When the tart is risen around the edges, crisp and golden brown it’s good to go – normally around the 30 minute mark. Remove and enjoy! To serve, drizzle over the lemon juice, a bit more olive oil and some freshly ground salt and pepper!
I don´t even need to think twice abot this – I´ll defintiely be making it. You made it look so beautiful too! Here in Spain they also sell pastry in the chiller cabinet with pizza dough, but we can also get the frozen blocks.
Thanks so much Chica – I wish I could get the frozen blocks – they’re so handy to cut into quarters and drape over pies and the like 🙁 Oh well, I’m just glad I found puff pastry 🙂
Haha! I will try not to make fun of you and only say you must be making your grocery shopping very very quickly without looking around you 😉 (By the way, does it mean, when I was posting all the fruit tarts with puff pastry, you were thinking I made my own puff pastry? 😉 I think I will never try it in my life. I’m too lazy.)
Anyway, your tart looks gorgeous. Beautiful colours and wonderful combination of flavours. Photos are simply breathtaking! I start having serious complexes about my poor compact camera’s shots….
I don’t know if you have tested it, but the puff pastry sheets freeze very well and are very useful when you want to make a quick savoury or sweet dish.
Thanks Sissi – no no, I was sure you bought the puff pastry, but you know, I just figured that maybe Switzerland was a more reasonable country and sold it more easily in the stores 😀
I think it’s not so much a case of doing grocery shopping quickly, it’s more a case of certain things, which I’m so familiar with in England, being completely different here. Things which would normally be grouped together for example in some cases aren’t, so I see the larger group of items, don’t see what I’m looking for and just make assumptions. A good example is the damn whipping cream. In the supermarket nearest to me, all the cream is UHT. In England we have single cream, whipping cream and double cream.
In France, I see “creme entiere” so I think “that must be similar to double or whipping cream”… it seems to be the French version of single cream. And the whipping cream, creme fleurette, is in a completely different section, next to the butter. Really strange for me! 😀
I’ll try freezing the puff pastry – thanks for the tips!
I would inhale this tart – I’d love a wedge for an early summer dinner with a light green salad. What a simple, yet heavenly meal!
Hehe, thanks Laura – it’s a wonderful dish… the sweet tomatoes and almost roasted-like quality of the courgettes…. mmm 😀
I don’t think we have fresh chilled dough like this, but now I’m going to look! I’ve only ever bought the frozen, so my fingers are crossed! I want to make this tonight!! And my dough takes too long to thaw:( Wish me luck!! xo Smidge
Hehe, good luck Barb – maybe the defrost setting on a microwave? I always find it useless, for the record. When I “defrost” chicken, the darn thing ends up cooking it slightly!
I will take a big slice, no, at least a 1/4, please. What a great looking tart! While you were shopping, did you get your 250 euros copper pot?
Thanks Norma – I didn’t buy my copper pot… actually the one I want ideally is even more because it’s bigger (it’s priced in terms of size). I actually just saw something different which I think would be more useful so I might buy that instead – will post about it if so 🙂
You may have just given me a new zucchini recipe, Charles. I don’t like them much and usually grate them into zucchini-feta pancakes or grate them and hide them in muffins. But sliced thinly, layered with tomatoes and sprinkled with feta — I’ll have to give it a try when the zucchini deluge begins this summer.
Hi Sharyn – the courgettes (or zucchinis 🙂 ) have an almost roasted quality! I must admit, I’m not usually a huge fan, but they cooked so they’re shrivelled like this, or roasted along with some aubergine and pepper it’s an amazing collection of flavours!
I hope you get a chance to enjoy the tart – let me know if you do 🙂
Uhhh if that isn’t the most stunning tart I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is. Beautiful presentation, and so colorful! And with some of my favorite veggies, too. I can understand why you and your wife finished the tart in one sitting. I’m thinking I could probably polish it off myself. 😉
Thanks Caroline! You know, puff pastry is one of those “dangerous” things that makes you feel like you’re crunching into air so you can wade through vast quantities of it before releasing that you just downed a thousand calories… oopsie 🙂
Just beautiful Charles! We don’t have refrigerated sheets…just frozen. Question, did the tomatoes give off liquid or did it evaporate in the 30 minutes of baking. This will be great when we start getting tomatoes from the garden.
Hi Karen – the tomatoes… they didn’t really no, I bought a pastry which was “épaisse” (means “thick”) – it said it was “perfect for liquids or wet ingredients” so you may want to bear that in mind. In general though they didn’t give off too much liquid. There was definitely no run-off on the plate!
A very attractive tart but it contains more vegetables than a normal human being should be forced to consume … in my not so humble opinion. 🙂 (Up the carnivore contingent!!)
Thanks A_. I gotta say that sometimes I crave vegetables. I don’t eat very much meat as it is… going through a phase right now of loving beans, salads and the like. Fresh flavours rather than fatty meat or nasty chicken.
I usually end up eating caesar salads and coleslaw when I’m craving veggies. Occasionally, I’ll make a quiche with broccoli, mushrooms, bacon and cheese but that’s as veggie heavy as I get.
I think it largely depends how one was raised I guess. I find it fascinating – I have friends and colleagues who cannot possibly even comprehend the idea of a meal as being a meal unless it has meat in it. For me, my mother was a vegetarian and while she did cook meat as well for the rest of the family there were days when we ate purely vegetarian and I grew to love having a break from the flavour and texture of meat. I’d find it very difficult if someone said to me “you have to eat meat every day” now. In fact, I’d rather go 100% vegetarian then have to eat meat every day… lacto-ovo though… I love me some eggs, milk and tasty, tasty cheese! 😀
That is a beautiful looking tart and I know how delicious it would be. For a savory tooth like mine .. it would be so perfect for dinner!
Thanks Kankana – I highly recommend it 🙂
Gorgeous! And, yeah, I’d never home-make puff pastry while I can get them all nicely rolled out in the shops. I figured it’s just too much trouble to go all pastry-snob. I go for “easy” (a better word than “lazy”). 😀
This is definitely something I’d go for anytime of the day. I could have that all to myself …. no sharing, thank you.
Hi Ping – yeah, I think I’d like to make it at least once in my life but in general, why bother when the ready-made stuff is just as good?!
Oh Charles this tart looks just beautiful. You’ve outdone yourself again! This is something to make when you really want to impress your guests. I’m looking forward to seeing what Swedish treats you have up your sleeves. I’ve bit a bit envious of all your bank holidays…but fortunately we have a three day weekend coming up. Can’t wait!
Thanks Barb – the bank holiday was great… all over now though alas… not sure when the next one is… Not for a while. July or August I do believe.
Thanks for your kind compliment! I hope you have a chance to try the tart!
Dear Charles,
Being a non-baker making my own pastry would be a nightmare but thankfully I am so used to buying ready made pastry in slices from the supermarkets here and to me, they are just a good without the hassles. Your tart looks awesome. Zucchini, tomato and cheese seem to be a great combination too.
Thanks Chopinand – yeah, I can’t imagine how annoying it would be having to make this pastry every time! I think it would put me off making tarts for life, lol 😀
Hello! That looks so nice. Plead please please can you make it for me and JJ when we next visit? I love pastry in all forms ( apart from the stuff here, which contains pork fat and milk power …why, oh why???) Can’t wait to see what you’ll do with pastry next. It makes for some great pictures.
I certainly can make it when you come to visit Clare – you might need to remind me though 🙂
The photographs made my mouth water! You posted this at just the right time, zucchini’s are coming and tomatoes are here. (Greece)
Thanks Debra – hope you have a chance to try it… it’s really tasty, especially with the little twist of lemon at the end 🙂
Oh Charles! This is insane, SUPER gorgeous. You are so detailed! Look at how you put the veggies… marvelous!! Trust me, without puff pastry, I can’t even call myself a “beginner” at baking…
Thanks so much Nami! I was actually annoyed because I ended up cutting the courgettes a bit more thickly than I wanted, sigh. Oh well. Luckily they roasted down to a good size! 🙂 I hope you can have a go with this tart… it’s a perfect light meal for a summer’s evening! 🙂
I certainly don’t think there’s any shame in buying good-quality ready-made pastry – especially puff because like you say, it takes hours to make. I don’t think we should be too harsh on ourselves, buying pastry and using it to make a wonderful tart like this is so much better than ordering takeaway. I love your tart and the red and green colour combination is so pretty. What a wonderful light meal Charles xx
Thanks so much Charlie – yeah, I mean, I probably wouldn’t make a habit out of buying “instant pizza dough”… it’s nothing like bread and smells weirdly of vinegar. Even shortcrust pastry is easy to make, but for something like this… no way am I going to spend 3, 4, 5 hours rolling and chilling pastry for a “quick” tart! 🙂
I’m so happy you found puff pastry, mostly for selfish reasons I confess. This tart is the perfect example of why. Gorgeous!!!! I can’t wait to see what all you come up with. My mouth is definitely watering.
Thanks Kristy – Well, now that I found the pastry, I can try some of those “high-speed snacks” which Sissi was making before Christmas! Can’t wait 😀
This is the most beautiful tart I have ever seen! So nice! My kind of meal!
Well that’s a compliment and a half – thanks so much Jen 😀
What an absolutely beautiful lunch, Charles. I bet the pastry was so light and flaky. The tomatoes looks so wonderful and sweet, and such a perfect foil for the salty feta (another great recipe to try with Chgo John’s home made feta!). I would have a hard time not eating half the tart.
Hi Eva, thanks so much! The pastry was indeed light as anything. Dangerously so – it’s like eating crispy air. 10 minutes later you realise you just inhaled 1000 calories worth of pastry, lol 😀
Charles, what a perfect vegetarian dish and I am so glad you posted this. It is a real beauty.
Thanks Suzi – I can imagine with some roasted fingerling potatoes or a little salad, it would me a fantastic full meal for 4 – don’t forget a nice glass of red wine too 😀
What an absolutely gorgeous tart! I’m sure it’s delicious as well, but I would hate to cut into it. It’s way too pretty!
Hehe, ah, it’s the problem with “pretty” stuff, MJ – sooner or later you have to go nuts with the knife though. It can still be a pretty tart, even with some tasty slices out – just gotta be careful not to sploosh the topping everywhere when cutting 😀
GORGEOUS charles! It just screams summer doesn’t it! Wish we could have that bout of sunshine here. Many crops are delayed and the farmers are all at a loss because of the horrible weather here in the uk. Haha i can’t believe you just realised you can buy puff pastry. I watch many coooking shows and apparently, this is what the top chefs ere use. Even they can’t be bothered with making their own, alas. Maybe one day when we’re very free we could try…
Thanks so much Shuhan for your very enthusiastic comment! I was really pleased with how it turned out. I guess it’s always a good sign when two people sit down and eat the whole thing in one go without thinking about it, right? 😀
Hi Charles,
This is one gorgeous tart! I love the beautiful arrangement of the veggies. I have never made a savory tart before. Very motivated to do so now.
Thanks so much Asmita – I’m really into savoury things right now… gone off sweet stuff a bit. I hope you decide to give it a try 🙂
I know it’s not a pizza, but I love the toppings. I love meat, but on bread, with cheese, just give me the veggies!
“I know it’s not a pizza”
This cheeky little tart can be whatever you want it to be Greg 😀
Gorgeous! Charles, I make all sorts of tarts, both sweet and savory, with puff pastry and … I must admit, I more often use store-bought puff pastry than homemade. And you know, I’m all about homemade everything! But so many times I get in the mood to make a tart on the spur of the moment. Or the vegetables or fruits to be used really need to be used today–not tomorrow, after I’ve had time to make the pastry. Your colorful tart is a beauty with it’s artfully arranged vegetables!
Thanks Jean! Yeah, I think tarts… especially the kind of light, puffy, puff-pastry ones… they’re often “on a whim” type things aren’t they. It’s not often I “plan” to make one, which is why packet pastry is so useful. I think they number of puff-pastry tarts being made in the world would decrease by about 98% if people had to make their own pastry each time, lol 😀
This a gorgeous tart. I love the colors of the vegetables on this tart.
Thanks Words! the colours were beautiful indeed – rich orange from the pastry, greens and reds from the toppings, with creamy white feta. Yum!
oooooh, this is positively gorgeous!! I would like this for breakfast tomorrow, ASAP, please =D
Thanks Squishy – you need very few ingredients… I see no reason why you couldn’t quickly whip it up for brekkie! 🙂
I think, Charles, for puff pastry I’m with you and would get the shop bought one as the quality has improved tremendously in the past few years…then you can concentrate on making that delicious looking tart!
Totally – it’s best with puff pastry too I think… I just don’t think it could be the same with shortcrust or something!
Uhhh at last something that I will definitely make! Do you think I can use sundried tomatoes as well here?
Yeah, I guess you could chop those up and sprinkle on the top with the feta.. would probably be really nice!
Indeed silly u! auchan and l’eclaire is selling those in different sizes and supermarkets in france realy have EVERYTHING (not like those austrian shops…)
Lovely tart, but we dont make our tarts with puff pastry, we make it with pate bricée. at least thats how we do it in picardi… But I am sure puff pastry is a great choice of dough too! I am going to try this charles!
Hehe, yeah, can’t believe it was under my nose the whole time! 😀
Though to be fair, the supermarkets don’t have everything! I do miss some British delights which they don’t seem to sell here, like Marmite – a thick yeast extract for spreading on toast. So delicious!
This is a perfect example of love at first sight!
I am making this very very soon
Thanks Sawsan – hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Charles, I have to say, your last 3 recipes, have completely wowed me. From the rhubarb meringue number, to the raspberry beet salad and now this incredible tart. Gorgeous choices, colours, fresh ingredients at their best. (and I haven’t even started on the quality of your photos…:)). Spectacular!
Oj, I forgot to reply – but thank you so much – your kind words mean a lot! I really love it when I churn something out and feel like it’s been a hit. It’s a great feeling 🙂
The prettiest looking tart with ingredients I absolutely love! I hope I can try it soon with the coming up birthdays and graduation ceremonies. 🙂
Hehe… you’re not alone getting excited about shopping kitchen utensils. 😉
Thanks so much Marie – long time no see – I hope everything is fine with you 🙂
I can’t wait to try this out during the week end. Thanks Charles, you’re a star 🙂
Hi
Looks good, giving it a try tonight, hopefully it will please the carnivores in the household!
Btw, ready rolled puff pastry sheets are sold in the chiller cabinet en Angleterre aussi!
Hi Cat – hope you all enjoy it! Nice that you can get it ready rolled… I wish we could buy the frozen blocks of it here though… they’re much more versatile in my opinion!