Perfect Tomato-Goat Cheese Tart

For the oven roasted tomatoes:

Cut the cores out of the tomatoes and use a knife to make a very shallow ‘X’ on the bottom of the tomato. Dip them for not more than 60 seconds into salted boiling water, then quickly fish them out and place in ice-cold water to prevent further cooking. Peel them, cut in half, carefully scrape the seeds out and place them cut side down on paper towels for a few minutes to get rid of the excess liquid. Then turn them around, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on the baking parchment (drizzled with olive oil) cut side down. Sprinkle some extra salt and pepper on the top of tomatoes and scatter fresh thyme (generously) on top. Cut the garlic cloves in half and place them among the tomatoes. Finally, drizzle some extra olive oil on top. Roast the tomatoes in a 140°C oven for 3–3.5 hours. At the last hour, turn the cut side up. They will come out looking a bit old (wrinkled and all) but that’s exactly how they need to be. I have used large tomatoes here, small ones will roast faster so 2.5 -3 hours maybe enough.

To make the tarts:

If using frozen puff pastry, thaw beforehand (will take about 30 minutes). Peel the onion, cut in half and slice thinly. Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan and sauté the onion until transparent (about 10 minutes). Then add the sugar, caramelize for 3-4 minutes. Take off the heat, add the goat cheese and mix well. This way the goat cheese will be easier to spread.

Top the pastry sheets with onion-cheese mixture leaving 0.5 cm on all sides empty. Nicely arrange the oven-roasted tomatoes on top. If using vinegar, add a drop on each tomato before baking. Scatter some fresh thyme on top and bake everything in a 200°C oven for about 20-25 minutes. Check halfway to see if the pastry is rising well; depending on the oven they may take a bit more or less time.

Tips:

1. Tomatoes can be roasted the day before and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

2. These will make 4 hearty starters, but dividing each in 4 (before baking) will make 16 nice small canapés.

3. Don’t be tempted to use more than a few drops of the vinegar. I’ve used balsamic cream vinegar with fig flavor, but in case you don’t have cream vinegar, skip it altogether.

4. These tarts can also be made with roasted bell peppers, then adding just a bit more of balsamic cream vinegar. You can also use raw tomatoes (peeled and de-seeded), which will still be nice, just without the depth of flavour.

Note: The photo was taken when using fresh tomatoes for making these tarts. Oven-roasted tomatoes will have a darker, more intense colour, and taste much much better!