Upside-Down Tomato Tart #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

Do you know the secret for making winter tomatoes delicious? Roast them. This recipe turns what might be (or almost certainly will be) disappointing plum tomatoes bought during an arctic blast into a richly flavored and deeply satisfying dish. Add a flaky, delectable parmesan crust and you have a meal you’ll want to put on repeat.

 

Upside-Down Tomato Tart

Adapted from Milk Street Bakes by Christopher Kimball

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds medium plum tomatoes, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds (avoid other tomatoes as they’ll be too juicy and make the crust soggy)

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

3 teaspoons minced fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried), divided

8 tablespoons cold salted butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 1/2 tablespoons ice water

1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

 

Directions

In a large colander set over a bowl, toss the tomato slices with 1 teaspoon salt. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes, shaking the colander occasionally to drain liquid. Heat oven to 425 F with a rack in the middle position.

Shake the colander one last time to drain the liquid from the tomatoes. Lay the slices on paper towels and pat dry with another paper towel or two. Brush a 9-inch glass pie plate with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Shingle tomato slices in concentric circles, packing them tightly. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme (1/3 teaspoon dried), then drizzle with remaining  tablespoon of olive oil. 

Bake until softened and most of the liquid has cooked off, 30 to 40 minutes (depending on the ripeness of the tomatoes). Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Leave oven on.

Meanwhile, in a food processor (or a bowl), combine flour, Parmesan, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme (1/3 teaspoon dried), 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Pulse 3 or 4 times. Scatter about 1/3 of the butter over the flour mixture and process until butter is well-incorporated, 15 to 20 seconds. Scatter remaining butter, then pulse until broken into pieces no bigger than small peas, 10 to 12 pulses. Drizzle the ice water over the mixture, then pulse until it forms curdy clumps, 12 to 15 pulses.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gather and press it into a disk about 5 inches in diameter. At this point you can wrap the dough and refrigerate it for up to two days. If using refrigerated dough, let it sit at room temperature for 5 or 10 minutes before rolling.

Roll dough into a 10-inch circle. Lay the dough on the roasted tomatoes in the pie plate, gently pressing it with your hands. Then fold and tuck the edges inside the pie plate. With a paring knife, make slits 1 inch apart all over the dough and all the way through.

Bake until crust is deeply browned and juices are bubbling at the edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Set the pie plate on a wire rack, then run a knife around the edge of the pie plate to loosen the tart. Cool for 30 minutes.

Invert a platter onto the pie plate and, holding the together, carefully re-invert. Lift the pie plate. Serve warm or cool to room temperature. Just before serving, sprinkle with more pepper and the remaining thyme.

 

 

Coming in June 2025!

There’ll be Shell to Pay

Haunted Shell Shop book 2 

When she’s not selling seashells by the North Carolina seashore from her shell shop, Maureen Nash is a crime-solving sleuth with a ghost pirate for a supernatural sidekick . . .

Maureen is still getting used to life on Ocracoke Island, learning how to play the “shell game” of her business—and ghost whispering with the spirit of Emrys Lloyd, the eighteenth-century Welsh pirate who haunts her shop, The Moon Shell. The spectral buccaneer has unburied a treasure hidden in the shop’s attic that turns out to be antique shell art stolen from Maureen’s late husband’s family years ago.

Victor “Shelly” Sullivan and his wife Lenrose visit the shop and specifically inquire about these rare items. Not only is it suspicious that this shell collector should arrive around the time Maureen found the art, but Emrys insists that Sullivan’s wife is an imposter because Lenrose is dead. A woman’s corpse the police have been unable to identify was discovered by the Fig Ladies, a group who formed an online fig appreciation society. They’re meeting on Ocracoke for the first time in person and count Lenrose among their number, so the woman can’t possibly be dead.

But Lenrose’s behavior doesn’t quite match the person the Fig Ladies interacted with online. Now, Maureen and Emrys—with assistance from the Fig Ladies—must prove the real Lenrose is dead and unmask her mysterious pretender before a desperate murderer strikes again . . .

 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.