tarte de Provence - Tomato and goat cheese tart with caramelized onions, oil cured black olives and herbes de Provence

Have you ever been sitting in the dentist chair with a drill in your mouth and your cheeks stuffed full of cotton and you desperately need to go to your “happy place?”  Well Provence is that place for me!  I can close my eyes and and find myself having a picnic in a field of lavender on a sunny warm day.  The menu includes, melon, quails’ eggs, creamy branade of cod, game pâté, stuffed tomatoes, and marinaded mushrooms and if need be, I can even taste a cool refreshing glass of rosé.  If this sounds like the pages from a chapter of a Peter Mayle book, you are right.  My mind borrows this picnic menu from chapter four in Toujours Provence.   Thanks be to God, My husband and I had the very memorable pleasure of experiencing this first course at Auberge du la Loube in Buoux on our honeymoon, 17 years ago.....  

 

After recently having read the two books, A year in Provence and Toujours Provence, my husband (then fiancé) and I decided that Provence would be the perfect destination for our romantic get away after the wedding.  About a week into our vacation, we thought it would be a good idea to find the author, Peter Mayle’s house (not too difficult, he made the mistake in his first book to give the general location of his old farmhouse and put a drawing of it on the cover) and leave copies of our books in his mailbox with a friendly note explaining that we were there in Provence on our honeymoon due to his fabulous books and would he kindly sign them for us?   We would return the following day to collect them from his mailbox.  We got this faintly sick feeling that we were starting to resemble stalkers, but we did it anyway.  And as luck would have it, he graciously signed both of our books with lovely notes wishing us a happy honeymoon!  (Unfortunately, we heard a few years later that he finally had to move due to people like us.  Please forgive us, Mr. Mayle.)

There are endless possibilities for the “foodie” to enjoy ones self in Provence.... the fabulous restaurants for pocketbooks of all size, the open air markets which are a feast for the eyes, and of course the wine!  Provence is home to the mighty Châteauneuf-du-Pape....affectionately known by locals as “the king of wines and the wine of kings.”  The slightly more humble yet bold and peppery Côte-du-Rhônes are superb as well.  You may even take your empty jug down to the local co-op and fill it with the best table wine you’ll ever have for a song and a dance.  And then there is the absolutely refreshingly crisp rosés of Provence that go down like water...arrrg, I found out the hard way!

Whenever we are able, we love to get back to glorious Provence...and if not able, I devour any and all books regarding food of, gardens in, history on, wine of, stories about, memoirs of, cookbooks on, and even truffles of Provence.

I dubbed this the Tarte de Provence after coming up with this recipe which completely encompasses Provence for me.  The chèvre, black olives, and tomatoes are all prolific natives of Provence and of course the herbes de Provence is a magical blend of thyme, savory, fennel, basil, and lavender which enlivens this rustic tart.

 

Tarte de Provence

1 1/2 large sweet onions - thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup whole milk

8 sun dried black olives - coarsely chopped

3/4 cup grape tomatoes - cut in half

3 ounces goat cheese

1 pâte brisée - basic pastry dough  - pre-baked (see below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Thinly slice your onions using a mandolin slicer if you have one.  (They make the slicing go quickly and you can achieve a very thin slice with ease.)  Heat your olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat and add the onions, herbes de Provence, and salt.  Sauté the onions for 20 minutes until they are very soft and tender.  Let cool slightly.

In a bowl combine the eggs, cream and milk.  Add just a pinch of salt.  (The black olives are very salty so not much else is required)  Set aside.

Coarsely chop the olives and pit before hand if needed.  Cut the grape tomatoes in half.  Crumble the goat cheese.  Have all of these ready to go before assembling the tart.

Gently spread the cooked onions on the bottom of the pre-baked tart shell.  Be careful not to crack the crust.  Pour the egg mixture over the onions.  Do not overfill the tart because you will need to leave room for the tomatoes, goat cheese and olives.  Arrange the tomato halves on top of the tart.  Sprinkle the goat cheese over the tart and then the chopped olives.  Sprinkle about a 1/4 teaspoon herbes de Provence over the top.

Bake the tart for 35 to 40 minutes until slightly golden on top. 

Pâte Brisée - basic pastry dough

I use this basic dough recipe for most of my savoy tarts. This dough freezes well so I like to make this dough in a double batch when at home (for the tart business I would make in large batches) and freeze the other one for later use if I'm not using it right away. I figure if you're going to the effort to make pastry dough then you might as well make two... so this recipe is a double. Remember, the key to a successful and flakey crust is to work quickly and keep the dough cold. You want the butter to remain in little pea sized balls throughout the dough for a flakey crust. So our mantra is....cold dough, hot oven!  This is the same recipe (minus the sugar) as the pâte sucrée.  I like to keep it simple.

300 grams flour (2 cups) I like to weigh my flour for more accuracy

1/4 teaspoon salt

14 tablespoons unsalted butter - chopped

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor add the flour and salt and pulse until combined. Add the chopped butter and pulse until the butter is in small pea sized balls. Add the water and pulse until the dough just comes together. 

Put the dough out to a floured surface and make into a large mound and cut in half with a pastry scraper. I like to weigh the halves so that they are equal. Put each half onto a square of wax paper and form into a disk. Wrap with the paper and chill for at least one hour. 

If you are freezing at this time, then wrap again in foil and freeze. Let dough defrost in the refrigerator before use.

Roll out dough on a floured surface into a 13" circle. Place dough into a 10" tart pan and fold the overhang inward and press gently into the sides. Do not force or stretch the dough because a thin spot may cause the filling to leak. The dough edges should be a little bit higher than the side of the tart pan to help prevent shrinkage. Prick the bottom of the shell with your fork. Press a piece of foil (12"x13") into the edges of the shell and cover with the foil completely touching and covering the entire shell. Chill for at least a half an hour. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Completely fill the foil covered shell with pie weights or dried beans. Put the shell into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and remove beans and foil. Brush the inside of the shell with a beaten egg white to prevent leakage from small cracks. Return to the oven for about 10 minutes and bake until golden brown. Let cool on wire rack.  The shell is ready to fill.

 

Comments

[Ilke]

Oh this one just speaks to me :)