Sunday, September 12, 2021

Sunday Recipe: Summer Cherry Tomato and Zucchini Tart

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Readers, you're in for another delicious treat as our friend Celia Wakefield presents the best possible way to eat all those zucchini and tomatoes overflowing your garden and filling up the farmers' market. I got to have this at a luncheon following a home Eucharist led by the Reverend Canon Eleanor Prior, who only looked a little bit taken aback when we started peppering her condensed sermon with comments and questions. 

With or without an accompanying religious celebration, this savory tart will put the essence of September on your palate. 

 

 

Good morning my dear Reds and readers. I love it when Julia’s turn comes around and she asks me for a recipe to share. I wanted to check up on how long I have been writing for JRW on Julia’s page, but went down the site search engine rabbit hole and realized this was a task to put down. How am I? Happy to say much, much better over this time last year. My beloved, who will attain his 95 birthday this month, is so much improved in his health, though at his age there is concern on long term issues. Still enough of that, all is well right now. 

 

What have I been cooking, same old, same old, same boring! I needed a brain jolt, which I got a couple of weeks ago when Sam Shifton, NYT cooking head honcho, chef, and bottle washer wrote about no recipe recipes. I only read the Cooking section emails as I have refused on principle to pay for a second subscription. Plus one can get plenty of ideas from reading the articles, not to mention that Sam (or his crew when not washing up after him), usually adds in a non cooking article which just cries out to be read, and I have not been disappointed there yet.This gave me a new lease on my cooking life which added to having some real  activities to look forward to, in addition to enlarging our social circle of two, would involve bringing food.

 

The first outing was to an annual barbecue for the St. Luke’s volunteers who work at the Preble Street Soup Kitchen in Portland. St. Luke’s is the Episcopal cathedral in Maine which both the Hugo-Vidal and Wakefield families attend, when not sheltering from the plague. There is no more soup kitchen work per see, that’s now in our past life, but they do still need volunteers so St. Lukes is still involved. However our hosts brines, marinades and smokes briskets, pork and chicken each year and invites us to feast at their lakeside camp. We bring the rest. Today’s recipe was my offering and more on that later.

 

 

I’m not sure if there is a corner of the world that hasn’t experienced some topsy turvy weather this year. We certainly have up in our NE corner. August usually arrives with beautiful sunny days, hot enough to be outside in comfort after the swelter of July. Not this year. We have had swelter day after day. We retreated indoors to our Heat Pump providing dry, cool air, which does defeat the outdoor point of summer. But it was time to think up non heat generating food and as there is plenty of zucchini and tomatoes on the farm stands that gave me the idea of todays recipe for a Zucchini, Cherry tomato tart. I made it as finger food for the barbecue and cut it into bite sized pieces. It was most successful.

 


Let’s make it again. My cousins were visiting Maine from Vermont. We invited them to lunch and I wanted something easy so that I spent the time with them, not with the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what the weather would produce, but the tart plus antipasti from our Portland Italian store, Mucicci’s gave me necessary freedom with all food prepped for service in advance. Our trip through the summer social circle concluded with more friends for whom I made a seafood salad of mussels, shrimp, tiny potatoes and shucked corn.The salad was a great success, but a request for the dressing from one of the guests left me searching for the original recipe which I adopted for our meal. As I cook without recipes, creating some accuracy on amounts was needed, and here is part of my reply to the request.

 

Dressing, Well my recipe measurements are always a bit vague, however here is the recipe from which I worked!  

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mediterranean-potato-salad-with-shrimp-feta

I used at least a 1/4 C of olive oil, about a Tbsp lemon (half a large lemon), 1 tsp Dijon mustard approx, 1Tblsp frozen basil which had been prepped for pesto, 3-4 cloves baked garlic, (I bake several garlic heads in foil with olive oil at a time and store in the fridge), good squeeze of TJ'c Balsamic glaze instead of the sugar. (You can get Balsamic glaze in WhF too). I hope this helps.

I used tiny potatoes which I boiled, an ear of shucked fresh corn, about 2 C tiny frozen shrimp, which I cooked in vermouth and water with parsley and 5 Spice powder, and of course the mussels.

 

My guests came with six pounds of mussels which we cooked with vermouth plus seasonings, let them cool and mixed them with more dressing into the potatoes, corn and shrimp. There’s no photo as it really was a one color dish with some freshly chopped parsley on top. The vermouth is an old Julia Child trick. In Mastering the Art .  .  She wrote that is no white wine was opened or available use vermouth instead. And it works.

 

 

 

 

But back to my original tart recipe, having written the back story already. I know that tart conjures up baking, but for once I bought my tart pastry ready made. I won’t bore you to death with how I am not THAT baker, but I can make pastry however it was the 90+degree week and way too hot to make pastry so I bought frozen pastry shells and defrosted one. A rectangle is easier to work with for finger food and the pastry allowed me to remold and roll out to a rectangle. Once rolled it went into a foil lined pan. Then I pricked the rectangle all over, covered it with parchment paper, (foil works too), and sprinkled it with metal pastry weights. Into the oven for ten minutes, remove paper and weights, being careful not to burn oneself. Sigh! Return to the oven for five minutes plus just to finish. Buy or make some bread crumbs. I choose to make mine but Panko will work well.

 

This can all be done in advance. Next step is the assembly and the baking. I chose small zucchini and cherry tomatoes of different colors for contrast. I found a tip for grating Mozzarella on Google. Put the ball in the freezer for about twenty minutes plus and it grates just fine. Because this is a no recipe tart, be ready to eyeball your tart as you assemble as the quantities are approximate

 

Summer Zucchini & Cherry Tomato Tart

 

INGREDIENTS

 

Packet of short crust pastry (the sort already in ready-made pie pans works well)

1 baking sheet at least 9”x13” for the pie tin pastry. 

Line your pan with foil for easy removal, and spray lightly with oil spray. A pan or baking tin with a small lip works well, but this can be made free form too. As we are using zucchini cut into lengths, a square or rectangle works best.

 

2 small zucchinis, cut into thin slices lengthwise

Green box of cherry tomatoes, mixed colors if possible

1 Cup grated Mozzarella ball

Cup of fresh toasted breadcrumbs or Panko crumbs

3/4 - 1 Cup Parmesan / Pecorino Romano grated cheese

 

Method:

You have 2 choices for pastry:

 

1)    Make a shortcrust pastry using1 3/4 cups Flour, 1 stick + 1Tblsp unsalted butter, 1 egg yolk,

    1/2 tsp salt, 2-4 Tblsp water to mix into dough*. I make pastry in the food processor.

2)    Buy frozen shortcrust pastry, defrost 1 pie pan if already rolled

    Fold pastry in four, and reroll into a rectangle or square to fit the pan.

3)    Chill the pastry until ready to blind bake it.

4)    Heat oven to 350 degreesF, cover pastry with parchment or wax paper and add pie weights

5)    Bake for 10 minutes, 

6)    Remove paper and weights, and bake another 5-10 until pastry is firm but not colored.

7)    Cool pastry until ready to assemble

Assembly

    Cover pastry with a thin layer of breadcrumbs. These keep the pastry from getting soggy as it bakes.

    Set the zucchini slices on the breadcrumbs in a single layer

    Cover zucchini with a layer of grated mozzarella 

    Cut cherry tomatoes in half across and add to the tart,

    Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheeses

 

Bake in a 350 degreeF oven for 30-40 minutes, rotating once.

 

Serve warm or at room temperature. The leftovers are great, but heat in the oven. Nuking doesn’t improve pastry.

My pastry recipe is the one I have been making since I received these Robert Carrier Cookery Cards for my Twenty first birthday, and that’s a long time ago!

ENJOY!

 

 




41 comments:

  1. This looks delicious Celia . . . I can’t wait to try it . . . . [And the video was great!]
    Could you substitute, say, yellow summer squash for the zucchini?
    The seafood salad sounds perfect for an end-of-summer meal.
    Thanks for sharing the recipes . . . .

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    1. You’re most welcome Joan, I haven’t tried summer squash but why not is usually my approach. Mixed with zucchini would make a lovely color contrast.

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  2. Yum! This will definitely appear on my table. So glad your husband is doing better and the happiest of birthday wishes to him later this month. Since the pandemic, the service at St. Luke's is one that I stream from time to time. It's a lovely cathedral. I think I'll drop in today if they are still streaming. Many have stopped.

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    1. Thank you Kaitlyn, and for your good wishes to Victor. How lovely to know you’re part of our larger congregation and YES, streaming is still on - http://stlukesportland.org/index.php/sunday-live-stream/

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    2. Thank you, Celia. It was a wonderful service.

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  3. Reading this lovely post was exactly what I needed today. Thank you, Ms. Wakefield.

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    1. Thank you Amy, and please, no formality. It gives my such joy to do these blogs. JRW has been a great gift for me.

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  4. That sounds delicious - and easy. Thank you, Celia!

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    1. Both of you are most welcome and my reply to Amy, above, is relevant here too.

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  5. Sunday morning in the kitchen with Celia! Just what I needed as temps will push 90 for the next three days. Thank you for the insights (bread crumbs on top of the pastry) and recipes.

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    1. You’re welcome Margaret. My condolences on your heat. We are cooling down here in Maine, in fact I had to add a blanket to the bed for the last two nights. Yes breadcrumbs; I’ve made this 4 times now and the most successful to me was fresh crumbs - enter Cuisinart- toasted lightly tasted the best. But this was a hack no recipe!

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  6. This sounds so delicious, and easy peasy. Celia, I'd love to hang out in your kitchen. Love your style.

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    1. Thanks Hallie, I’d love you to hang out too. Perhaps next time you’re on Peaks you’ll have some time to come out to Julia and my neighborhood, we’re only a half hour apart.

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  7. Thank you, Celia and Julia, for another fun and yummy recipe.

    I always learn something new from your videos and blog posts, Celia. This time I learned to use foil under the pastry weights. So much better than just dumping them straight onto the pastry, and no need to wash the weights after, which is such a pain. Light bulb moment! The vermouth idea is also brilliant. We have four bottles of the stuff here, for some reason.

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    1. I've used wax paper or parchment under the weights with good results and no washing-up after. And instead of pastry weights, dried beans.

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    2. Waste not, want not Karen. My guess is that vermouth will be gone by Christmas. Thank for your comment. You can also use wax or parchment paper for the weights.

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    3. Also good ideas, thanks.

      Hallie, I bought a set of ceramic weights donkey's years ago, but good to know beans are an acceptable substitute.

      And Celia, birthday felicitations to your dear Victor!

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    4. Vermouth is our drink of choice in this house. Straight up. Mind you, I'm presuming it's dry and white (not the sweet red variety). You can, of course, always put vermouth into your martini. (More or less of it depending on how dry or wet you like your drink to be. Julia Child and her husband Paul named it an 'upside down martini' when the drink had a lot of vermouth and only a little gin or vodka in it; that's how I like it.)

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    5. I'm drinking with you Amanda, I do love a martini, though nowadays I have to go easy, or it will be me under the table. Yes dry Vermouth. And Karen, I hate - haha - to boast, but I do have ceramic weights too. Bought back in the dark ages from Elizabeth David's Shop in Pimlico, London. So hang on to them.

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  8. Oh Celia, my that looks very tasty! Always love the Sundays that you show up to tempt us with your treats so thank you!

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  9. Happy Sunday, everyone, and thank you for this luscious post today, Celia. I LOVE your table, with the napkins in rings. I know your background!

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    1. Yes, my background, I'm chuckling Amanda, I really hate paper napkins, and now I am right in with the climate crowd, feeling righteous. But thank you, I love bringing out the nice things, it's fun.

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  10. Such a treat to read this! Thank you! What is basil prepped for pesto? I’m trying to imagine… Do you just put it in the blender with olive oil and freeze? And then add the rest of the ingredients as you need? I’ve never heard that term before.
    And thank you for this lovely lovely post!

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    1. HANK,

      Yes, it is such a treat to read this!

      Diana

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    2. Thanks so much Hank, I love the compliment. Anytime I chop up basil, I am mentally prepping it for some sort of pesto sauce down the line. I would probably have nuts, often walnuts since I read that we were being gypped over the real pine nut for which one needed a mortgage. So nuts first, garlic next unless it's already roasted, then basil and just a little oil to get everything moving and chopped. I use my Cuisinart. Then into ice trays, or small jars to freeze and add the bulk of the oil and parmesan when using. I read somewhere that cheese shouldn't be frozen, but I have to tell you I put, by accident, a piece of Tallegio in the freezer the other day thinking it was mozzarella! Which I was freezing to use in the recipe above. When I came to take out the mozzarella, I found it wasn't. SIGH. So I left it there and defrosted it a few days later, ate it and it was just fine and still delicious.

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  11. JULIA,

    Thank you for sharing this with us. We are living vicariously though Celia's beautiful gardens and photos of yummy food.


    CELIA, I am so glad to hear that you and your husband are doing well despite the pandemic. 95 years is wonderful! My uncle is going to be 90 in October.

    We are living vicariously through your beautiful gardens and photos. The food looks yummy. Since we do not have a garden, we go to the farmer's market. I think I caught something at the farmer's market because I have been sick with the flu since mid August. Yes, I was wearing a mask at all times.

    Happy Sunday, everyone!

    Diana

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    1. Diana, I am so very sorry to hear you've been ill. I do hope you're feeling better now. I have to confess, no gardens worth seeing here. As Julia said the other day, Celia, how are you English when you don't garden and are afraid of dogs! Well we live in the woods, literally, so no real sunlight other than on the dock. Victor was keen to plant tomatoes on the dock but I pointed it would be him watering them. And dogs, well going up in the tropics, my mother's constant cry was, Celia, don't pat the dog. Rabies was her concern. So I grew up dog phobic and have worked on it over the years. Now I have dogs in the form of Julia's dogs and Rocky comes to me for a cuddle when he visits.

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  12. Thank you Celia and Julia. No recipe recipes are the best recipes, aren't they? And who would have thought that you could re-roll frozen, premade pie crust - Brilliant! So now I have to figure out how to sneak the zucchini past my sister who has a rather... well she doesn't like zucchini, she calls it poison because she was forced, correction, we were forced to eat it a lot when my father had a garden and we had too much zucchini. By the way zucchini just did not make a good dill pickle. So I shall be thinking of how to do this without zucchini but I definitely give it a shot because I have to make a road trip this week and this would be a nice little nibble to stick in my lunch box.

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    1. You're most welcome Deana, I agree, they are the best meals when there's no recipe. You may find that your sister will not notice the zucchini if you cut it as thin as possible and hide it under the cheese, add more tomatoes and more cheese and it vanishes. Good luck!

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  13. Thank you for the latest Celia-and-Julia show! So enjoyable. I'll have to write down these hints and nonrecipes. I can see tossing on all kinds of produce--crookneck squash, mushrooms, etc. but those cherry tomatoes have got to be the best ingredient.

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    1. You're welcome Pat, we do love doing the video and photos, it's just fun. The cherry tomatoes are all from local farms and are so delicious this year.

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  14. Thank you, Celia! It is always such fun to see your videos! I wish I could be in the kitchen with you and Julia, getting all of your tips and tasting the delicious results of your culinary adventures! Like Deanna above, I was trying to figure out if I could sneak the zucchini past my hubby, who does NOT care for it. But it would be wonderful to have a no-cook meal.

    Sending best wishes to Victor for his birthday and his continued good health!

    Oh, and I love your table arrangement!

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  15. Hi Debs, I would love to be with you in the kitchen too. I think that if the Reds ever sort out having a retreat, I will come on to be your sous chef or we can take turns etc. and of course Roberta needs to be cooking with us too. Someone who does great desserts which are not my forte. Yes, I see your problem, you could try what I suggested to Deana. Perhaps if one cut the zuck thin, smeared it with pesto, piled on the cheese, stuck it under the broiler for a final blast, he wouldn't notice the hated veggie. But I must admit I can't think of another easy summer veggie to put in its place unless the whole bake was tomato. Though I am thinking very young raw turnip or kohlrabi might work but hard to get the veggies so young. It's really what can one dump on a sheet of par-cooked pastry which isn't labor intensive.

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  16. What a great recipe, or non-recipe, Celia! And, it's a solution to a problem I have. My sister-in-law, husband's sister, is vegetarian, and other than salad, I never know what to fix when she visits. We don't see her much anymore since my mother-in-law passed away last year, but she might be coming in next weekend. Now I have something that shows her I respect her food choices and want to serve something more creative than just salad.

    I always love your food videos with Julia. You two have such a lovely friendship. I'm glad that your husband's health is improved. I bet he enjoys being married to such a versatile chef. I'm looking forward to some fall recipes, too.

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    1. Kathy, I apologize for my late reply. We were watching the tennis earlier. I’m glad the recipe is of use to you. Just trying to think off hand of other veggie dishes I cook. Tell you what, send me your email to Wakefieldpro gmail etc. and I will send you something else to try. Hope the visit is fun.

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  17. Something else I would like to mention is that there are still comments being made on yesterday's post about 9/11. In fact, I just made one. Some of you might want to go back and read the later comments. I find them all poignant tributes.

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  18. Though your books are amazing, here is one part of your current post that I find life-changing: "Cover pastry with a thin layer of breadcrumbs. These keep the pastry from getting soggy as it bakes."!!!

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