This late-season tomato tart is a fitting farewell to tomato season
It’s late in tomato season, and if you haven’t used your homegrown or farmers market tomatoes to make a galette yet, now’s the time. The idea of this rustic tomato tart is simple: Slice tomatoes, season them, pile them onto flaky dough, fold the dough’s edges up, and bake until the crust is golden and crisp.
It’s a fantastic way to showcase the sweetness and flavor of ripe tomatoes. But tomatoes contain a lot of water, and water and crisp pastry crust are mortal enemies. In many cases, the crust of the galette gets so soggy that you can’t cut a clean slice. And not only the texture suffers — the extra water also dulls the fresh flavor.
We developed a crust that was delicate and sturdy, but we knew we’d have to do something to extract some liquid from the tomatoes before putting them into that crust. Slicing and salting the tomatoes and letting them drain in a colander was a great solution; it was quicker than roasting, taking just 30 minutes, and allowed the tomatoes to retain more of their fresh flavor.
Speaking of flavor, we decided to add cheese to the mix. We sprinkled melty Gruyere right onto the dough before layering the tomato slices on top, and we sprinkled Parmesan over the assembled galette. The cheeses added welcome richness and also preserved the dough’s crisp texture; the Gruyere helped waterproof the dough on the bottom while the wisps of Parmesan soaked up any extra moisture on top. And for a gentle kick and extra brightness, we spread some mustard onto the raw crust, before the grated Gruyere.
If you like tomatoes, make sure to try this recipe. It’s a game changer.
Fresh Tomato Galette
Serves 4 to 6
1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons table salt, divided
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
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