Celebrate Valentine's Day with Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry and anything red : ) Savory Roma tomatoes w/ Marinara today, Sweet strawberries with mascarpone tomorrow ; )
Click on "Read More" for the easy to do recipe
Dust a flat surface with a little flour to avoid any sticking.
Roll out your puff pastry sheet into a circle the best you can, large enough to lay into a round cake pan.
Slice 5-7 ripe Roma tomatoes lengthways, scoop out seeds and juice from the insides.
Place 1 tbsp of Olive oil in the cake pan and spread around the bottom.
Lie tomatoes skin side down in cake pan.
Season with salt, pepper, thyme, basil, oregano, and fresh rosemary leaves.
Lie slices of mozzarella on tomatoes.
Drizzle a small amount of Olive oil on tomatoes.
Spread a few tbsp of marinara sauce on puff pastry leaving a 1/2 inch border around all sides.
Lay puff pastry marinara side down on top of tomatoes, tuck in any extra pastry into the pan.
Poke puff pastry everywhere with a fork to create steam holes.
Bake in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let rest a few minutes to cool.
Run a knife around the edges, lay a serving dish on top of pan and flip pan over.
Sprinkle with slices of fresh basil.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Serves 8 small pieces when cut into pie wedges.
Marinara Sauce
Saute 2 small chopped shallots with 2 cloves minced garlic in olive oil,
Pour in one large can of crushed tomatoes,
Add one small can of tomato paste,
Season with salt, pepper, oregano, 1 bay leaf, a pinch of sugar and basil,
Simmer for fifteen minutes, if too thick for your taste, just add a little water,
Remove bay leaf and serve with pasta.
For this recipe I used leftover marinara sauce made the night before for a dinner of chicken parmesan : )
A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart.Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart in which the fruit (usually apples) are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked.
So with the help of Wikipedia on line defining the above dish titles, I find myself wondering, what the heck do I call this beautiful creation? I know it's not a new concept, one only has to google the idea and up pops tons of recipes and photos. They all call it either a tart or a tarte tatin. I don't think that it really falls under the definition of either though, but it's that close I suppose. I found many wonderful photos and most are using either cherry or roma tomatoes with a few utilizing heirloom. I think you probably can't go wrong with any of them, but I find I lean towards the lovely Roma tomato. Some use pastry, shortbread, and some the flaky puff pastry...I used one of my favorites of course, Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry. You just can't go wrong with this excellent product, if you've not yet given it a whirl, do try. There are so many delicious recipes you can make with it.
I love the beauty of the simplicity of this dish, the wholesome delicious ingredients, the delight I get when I turn it over and voila! there it is. Very easy to make, no time at all to bake, and consumed much too fast, sorry...I couldn't help myself, it was that tasty : )
I can see where people might want to call it a tarte tatin, it is an upside down savory type of tart. It does not use butter though and absolutely no sugar, although in the end the roma tomatoes take on a very sweet flavor. Oh how heavenly wonderful when matched with the savory flavors of fresh rosemary, fresh basil and the creamy mozzarella. Try this once, you'll never be the same : )
My turn to create a bit of Tarte Tatin style magic in the kitchen resulted in a dish I will make again and again : )
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
NOTE: You may notice in the photos that the amount of tomatoes is different than in the recipe, it is because I should of had a few more than I had : )