Tomato Tart with Spices and Herby Feta

As a lover of bruschetta, I had a strong feeling I would quickly fall in love with the Tomato Tart with Spices and Herby Feta. Along with chocolate, tomatoes are definitely one of my favorites (not together, to confirm). I was not only excited to make this recipe, but to consider it as dinner the night I made it (we don’t judge here, remember?).

For starters, I made the Flaky All-Butter Pie Dough the night before. If you’ve made the Rough Puff Pastry recipe in Dessert Person, this one will be no problem to complete, as they are very similar in processes. I formed the dough as directed with just a few ingredients and placed it in the fridge for a day before making the rest of the recipe.

I had most of these ingredients already. I went with beefsteak tomatoes, but next time I make this I will probably buy a variety to improve the overall appearance. I didn’t notice until I started making this recipe how Claire’s version had several varying tomato sizes in the picture. I also failed to find fresh oregano leaves (I find every time I want a fresh herb, the store has every option aside from the one I’m looking for, #blessed). I did, however, have fresh parsley that I had chopped up already for whatever I needed throughout the week, so I used that instead.

While I love tomatoes, I do not love chopping tomatoes. I’m never quite sure if I’m supposed to get rid of the middle parts after getting all the seeds out, and for whatever reason my skin often hurts after being wet from the tomato juices. Anyways, I sliced up half of them and added the shallot, spices, and garlic. I’ve learned from other chefs that it’s actually better to avoid cutting up garlic, as it will help increase the flavor, and Claire took a similar approach with this recipe.

After drizzling with olive oil, I placed them in the oven. If I did it again, I would only keep them in for 20-25 minutes; the tomatoes came out much more roasted than I wanted after 35 minutes, but it smelled divine.

Unless you did most of the feta spread step next (minus the garlic), it’s hard to do a bunch of things while the tomatoes are roasting for this recipe. Once they were cooling, I spread out my Flaky All-Butter Pie Dough. While this dough is formed into a fancy pie shape for other recipes in Dessert Person, all I had to do was basically roll it out for the Tomato Tart. I baked it for about 20 minutes, as I find my pastry and dough mixtures seem to become golden brown faster than what is suggested in the book.

I then pulled out the food processor for the feta mixture. This was just a matter of adding the rest of the ingredients, however I did enjoy seeing how easily the roasted garlic came out of its shells before adding them to the food processor. After pulsing several times, I had a beautiful cheese spread that was good enough to eat on its own. I also chopped up the rest of my tomatoes and set those aside.

Once the pie dough was cooled, it was time to assemble (and just in time because I was hungry!). I spread the feta mixture across the dough, then mixed up the roasted and raw tomatoes together on the baking sheet I used for roasting. I added the tomatoes over the feta, drizzled a little more olive oil and topped it with the chopped parsley I had.

In response to my love of bruschetta, this recipe makes bruschetta taste bland. It’s so rich, giving every ounce of flavor it possibly can. I had one rather large piece and that is all I needed; but I loved every second of it. The mix of roasted and raw tomatoes is great, the red pepper flakes and fennel seeds add those Italian spices we all love, and the feta spread with the buttery dough makes you forget about all your worries. If I had a restaurant, this would be on my appetizer menu. Next time I need to bring an appetizer somewhere, this will be the one. It’s a great spin on what most of us would expect with a tomato and bread combination, and opens one’s eyes to all the possibilities out there with upping the ante on flavors.

If Claire releases a video on this one I will be sure to share it!