This tart celebrates the tastes of summer, so choose the most beautiful ripe tomatoes you can find. Enjoy the rich jam-like texture and intense tomato flavour of this tart as a starter or as a light lunch, or take it along to your next picnic. If we have ground bush tomatoes at hand, we love to add these (dry and ground) to the filling for an extra flavour twist. This makes a large tart suitable for sharing. You can reduce the recipe to suit, or turn it in to individual small tartlets for finger food.
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra to serve
2 onions, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
20 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 jar Outback Tomato Chutney
2 teaspoons Mountain Pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Wild Herb Salt to taste
2 tablespoons (30g) Bush Tomatoes (optional)
2 tablespoons cornflour,
500g good quality puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with a litle water to make an egg wash
2 large capsicums, roasted (or bought from the deli)
approx 15 black olives, pitted and halved
Preheat oven to 200 C. Make the filing in advance as it needs to be chilled before baking.
To make the filling sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are tender.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Add the Outback Tomato Chutney, native pepper, thyme and Wild Herb Salt. if you have Bush Tomatoes, add them at this time, also.
Simmer and reduce for a further 30-40 minutes. The mixture should reduce to half its original volume and become almost jam like in texture. If the filling is still too soupy (perhaps the fresh tomatoes are very high in water content) cook for a further 10 minutes or until the texture firms up and the mixture is gooey.Depending on the tomatoes, you may find the texture is thick enough to complete cooking. If you think it is still a little soupy you can use the cornflour to thicken. Prepare the cornflour by mixing it with cold water until smooth. Add this to the tomato mix and cook through for a few minutes at a higher temperature.
Remove the filling from the heat, let cool a little before transferring to a food processor and puree until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold.
Meanwhile roll out the puff pastry until it fits a 23cm pizza (or oven) tray. Prick all over with a fork. Rest in the fridge until the pastry firms up.
Roll out additional pastry and cut into 2-3cm wide strips to make a border two strips high around the edge of the tart. Rest the pastry in the fridge until it firms a little and may be handled.
With a pastry brush, paint a strip of egg wash around the perimeter of the pastry base and place the strips flat along this strip to make a border. Continue placing the pastry strips until you have a border 2 strips high, using the egg wash between layers. Rest the prepared pastry case in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
Once the filling is cool , remove the pastry case from the fridge and spoon in the filling, spreading almost to the edges. Leave the filling a little humped in the centre and away from the edge, as it will spill over while cooking if placed too close to the edge at the start.
As the pastry starts to rise, you can then spread out the mix to the edges if required, but this should not be necessary.
Carefully egg wash to top surface of the pastry border, being careful not to dribble egg wash down the sides, as this will inhibit the pastry rising.
Bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is well cooked and golden (including the bottom). This will take about 50 minutes.
While the tart is cooking, cut the roasted capsicum into long strips .
Remove the tart and let cool to room temperature.
Place the strips of roasted capsicum carefully across the surface in a lattice pattern. Place a whole or half pitted olive in each square and gently brush the the whole surface very lightly with a little olive oil.
This tart is best served at room temperature or slightly warm.