Caramelised Onion, Tomato and Goats Cheese Tart

I love this recipe. Whenever Mike and I are eating 'posh' and I need a quick starter to rustle up, then this is one of our favourites. I just love the taste of the crumbled goats cheese and the onion, with the little flavour bursts from the cherry tomatoes. It uses ready made, ready rolled puff pastry so is really quick and easy to put together. You can adapt it to make small individual tarts, or one large one as I have here. It's based on an Ina Garten 'Barefoot Contessa' recipe, which I have adapted slightly (the original recipe can be found here).

Caramelised Onion, Tomato and Goats Cheese Tart

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 Sheet ready rolled puff pastry (plus a little plain flour for sprinkling)
1 large Spanish onion, cut into thin slices
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tsbpn sugar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbspn white wine
1 tbspn fresh thyme leaves
1 small packet of soft, crumbly goats cheese (not the rinded log)
1 pack of small cherry tomatoes
A little freshly grated Parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190 Fan / 210 Conventional / 425 F / Gas 7. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Unroll the pastry, using a little flour on the work surface to stop it sticking if necessary (I find it's easier to do this once you have left the pastry out of the fridge for about 30 minutes).

Fry the sliced onion in the olive oil gently until softened and translucent. Add the sugar and garlic then stir. Leave to cook, stirring occasionally to avoid the onions catching, for about 20 minutes until golden brown. This long slow cooking process is needed to bring out the sweetness of the onion (although the sugar helps with this and the browning). Add the white wine, thyme (reserving some to sprinkle over the tart later) and a little salt and pepper. Cook gently while stirring for another couple of minutes, until the wine is absorbed. Leave on one side to cool a little.

Trim the edges of the pastry sheet to form a square, then, using a sharp knife, score another square around two centimetres inside the edge of the pastry. Spread the onion mixture over the area of the inner square (the border will puff up to form a nice edge).

Quickly, using the same frying pan, add the tomatoes and cook gently for a couple of minutes over a low heat - add a little more oil if necessary - to just warm through.

Spread the tomatoes over the onion mixture. Crumble the goats cheese between the tomatoes, and then sprinkle a little Parmesan over the tart, along with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, and some of the reserved thyme.

Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes, until the edge of the pastry is puffed and golden. The base should be crisp underneath.

I find this is nicest left to stand for a few minutes, but served whilst still warm. I sometimes add a little rocket as a side salad, sprinkled with a little Honey, Mustard and Balsamic Dressing*.

As the recipe includes thyme, I'm sending this to the Herbs on Saturday challenge, organised and hosted this month by Karen at Lavender and Lovage. The roundup will appear at the end of the month on Karen's blog.

* Honey, Mustard and Balsamic Dressing

I know that you can buy perfectly acceptable dressings in the supermarket, but it's really easy to make your own, thus making sure you get one you like the flavour of, and I think they are much more delicious. To make my favourite dressing, I just add 3 parts Extra Virgin Olive Oil to one part Balsamic Vinegar (for example 75ml oil to 25ml vinegar) to a jug, and add 2 tbspn honey, 1 tbspn wholegrain mustard, 1/4 tspn salt and a few grinds of black pepper, then whisk together. Or you could just add the ingredients into a clean jam jar or bottle, screw on the top and shake like billy heck. Taste and adjust the seasoning / honey / mustard to get something you like. See? Easy!

Enjoy,

Susie