Fresh Tomato Tart

Last summer, we over planted tomatoes. We had so many that they turned into a canopy and we couldn’t reach one side of the garden. The result was lots of dropped tomatoes on the garden floor. The upside of this garden fail is the incredible amount of volunteer plants that popped up this spring. We gave away at least 20 tomato plants, all labeled with a question mark as to what type of fruit they’d produce…yes tomatoes are a fruit, don’t come at me. We now have a hearty stock of well spaced tomato plants and they are producing beautiful, juicy heirlooms. My favorite are the orange slicing tomatoes. They’re tart and sweet and they really fall in line with that fruit classification. Here’s an easy, mildly laborious, very French tomato tart.

yield : 6 servings 

prep time : 45 minutes

9 layers Phyllo Dough, defrosted
¼ cup Unsalted Butter, melted
1 ½ Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/3 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Large Heirloom Tomatoes, sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds
½ cup Fennel, thin sliced
¼ cup Shallot, thin sliced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil 
Lots of Basil to garnish 
Salt and pepper 

Preheat the oven to 375°

Whisk together melted butter and Dijon. Separate 3 sheets of phyllo and stack them on top of each other on a sheet tray. Brush the top sheet of dough with 1/3 of the butter mixture, all the way to the edges. Sprinkle with a handful of parmesan. Layer 3 more sheets on top of this and repeat the same step. Do this once more with the remaining sheets, butter mix and parmesan. Top the final brushed and parmed layer with thin sliced fennel, tomato slices over the top of the fennel and thin sliced shallot on the very top. Drizzle with measured olive oil and season liberally with salt and fresh cracked pepper. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until dough is golden brown and crispy and tomatoes have begun to shrivel. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh basil.