A savory tart with sautéed eggplant and bell pepper (eventually zucchini as a substitute), typical Mediterranean vegetables, arranged on a bed of tomato sauce, beautifully presented in the shape of a crown for your appetizers, barbecues, light lunches…
This tart is halfway between the sublime tarte soleil / sun tart with its gourmet rays and the iconic tarte à la tomate / tomato tart with a Dijon mustard base, or my mom’s three-pepper tart. It makes a WOW effect every time, even though it’s ultra-simple to make, a bit like galettes (tarte rustique / rustic tart), where a few folds and you’re done.
Recipe substitutes
I’m proposing a typical South-France Provence vegetable filling for a summer tart, served with burrata cheese straight from the oven. Still, you can use the main principles of this recipe to adapt it with winter vegetables, ham and cheese, or any other savory filling. And even a sweet version.
This recipe may seem ultra-easy, and in fact it is, but it’s rather complicated for me to describe in English, because every time I cook it, I make a slightly different version. Here are a few variations you can make:
Vegetable choices: I suggest eggplant, bell pepper, and cherry tomatoes. You can vary with the traditional South-France ratatouille vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, and tomato.
You can choose two, three, or all four, or even play around with varieties such as different bell pepper colors or eggplant varieties.
I recommend pre-cooking them in a pan with olive oil, onion or shallot, garlic, and herbes de Provence (in the photos that day I had fresh rosemary picked in my garden next to Paris). You can sauté them together or separately.
You can choose other vegetables: winter vegetables such as carrots, leeks, pumpkin or butternut squash… I like to use caramelized onions, leek fondue or mixed mushrooms.
You can add cheese such as feta, Emmental or Comté, goat cheese… or mozzarella. In this case, I’d recommend placing burrata cheese on the still-warm tart after baking.
You can also add bacon/lardons, for example.
For the base, I choose a slightly thick tomato coulis. You can replace it with a pesto or mustard base. If so, mix it with half a cream cheese such as Saint Môret or Philadelphia.
These are just a few examples, but the range of possibilities is endless.
How to make the crown shape
Here are the main steps to making a beautiful crown. I outline all the steps below and give you my advice. I’m also including a step-by-step photo guide, which is often much more informative.
- Choose a round pie pastry. Ideally, a puff pastry will give you pretty, slightly puffed triangles that add volume to your tart. But any pastry will do. Grocery store-bought ready-made puff pastry is perfect; that’s what I choose, but if you have time to make your own, go for it. Shortcrust pie pastry works perfectly well.
- Start by making a round mark in the center. The size of a bowl is perfect. Flip a bowl in the center of the pastry, then press lightly to form a large circle without piercing the pastry.
- Then, using a sharp paring knife, cut lines in the center of the circle. Either cut two lines in four quarters to make 4 points, or 6 with 3 lines, or even 8 with 4 lines, but then you’ll have small points on your crown.
- Top the outer ring with the vegetable filling: tomato coulis, vegetables…
- Finally, before placing in the oven, fold the center tips over the filled ring. Press down a little so that they stay in place and don’t fall back in the middle during baking.
- You can leave the pastry as is, or brush the folded tips for a golden crisp result with either beaten egg (whole or yolk with a drop of water), or cream, which also works, that’s my mother’s tip.
- I’d also suggest straightening the dough a little all around to form a sort of border, but you don’t have to.
Finally, bake for about 30 minutes.
Savory Tart with Provençal Vegetables Crown-shaped
Ingredients
- 1 puff pastry round
- 1 eggplant
- 1 bell pepper ideally red
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 onion or 2 shallots
- 150 ml tomato sauce thick sauce
- 1 burrata or mozzarella ball
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- herbes de Provence
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
Sauté eggplant and bell peppers
- Rinse and seed the bell pepper, then cut into strips. Rinse the eggplant, remove the stalk, slice, then cut into strips to match the bell peppers. Peel and chop garlic and onion.
- Sauté separately or together, as desired. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Sauté onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vegetables (either together in one frying pan, separately in two frying pans, or repeat the process a second time). Season with herbes de Provence. Fry for about ten minutes.
Prepare the tart
- Preheat oven to 180°C/250°F.
- Roll out the pastry. Place a bowl in the center to mark a circle. Cut this central circle into 4 or 6 pieces to form the future points of your crown (see photos).
- Spread the tomato coulis over the outer ring. Place the pre-cooked bell pepper and eggplant slices on top. Add halved cherry tomatoes.
- Fold the tips over the top of the filling and raise the edges a little all around.
Bake and serve
- Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C/250°F.
- Remove from the oven, then place the cut burrata on top of the still-warm tart and serve.