This is the very first tart I’ve ever made. I’m quite proud of myself for pulling it off. It took quite a bit of time and I thought I’d have to do it twice, but no, my first one came out splendidly. It looked great and it was delicious.
The Recipe
There are a lot of vegetables called for in this recipe. There are bell peppers, eggplant pieces, sweet potato cubes, and the best tasting caramelized sweet onions ever. Overall, this is an excellent recipe that includes everything you’ll need to make the perfect tart. The breading is crumbly and flavorful and the cheese mixture is out of this world. While this tart does take a little while to put together because of all the roasting and browning of the crust, it’s totally worth it at the end.
You’ll have leftovers after putting this dish together. I did. I wish I had purchased a few more tart pans because I could have prepared at least two more of these. I suggest you do this because you can’t fit all that much of the ingredients into just one pan. Plus, you can freeze any leftover tart for another day. You’ll be glad you did.
Ingredients
Serve: 4
1 Red Bell Pepper, Cut Into 1 Inch Pieces
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, Cut Into 1 Inch Pieces
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 Small Eggplant, Cubed into 1 Inch Pieces
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1 Sweet Potato, Trimmed and Cubed into 3/4 Inch Pieces
1 Medium Sized Zucchini, Trimmed and Cut into 3/4 Inch Pieces
2 Medium Sized Sweet Onions, Sliced Thin
9 Inch Pie Crust Dough
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1/3 Cup Ricotta Cheese
4 Ounces Feta, Crumbed
8 Cherry Tomatoes, Cut in Half
2 Eggs
1 Cup Heavy Cream
Step-by-Step Instructions
I’d like to thank Yotam Ottolenghi and his incredible cookbook called Plenty for this recipe. Even though I slightly changed a few things, he was my inspiration, so thank you very much.
Pre-Heat Oven
Arrange both oven racks so one is in the top position and the other is in the center position. Then, pre-heat the over to 425°.
Prep the Ingredients
To get everything out of the way so I had some room to think, I first prepped all the ingredients. First, I trimmed, cleaned and cut the bell peppers into one inch pieces.
Next, I trimmed and diced the eggplant, sweet potato and zucchini.
Finally, I trimmed and sliced the two sweet onions.
For the peppers, eggplant, sweet potato and zucchini, I added 1 tablespoon of olive oil to each bowl, along with a few pinches of salt and a few pinches of black pepper to each and mixed the contents of each bowl until the respective vegetable was coated with the oil.
Roast the Vegetables
I roasted the peppers and the eggplant first. I spread the peppers out on a large baking sheet and placed them on the top rack in the oven for 12 minutes.
I spread the eggplant out on its own baking sheet and placed that sheet on the center rack of the oven.
Once the 12 minutes was up, I removed the baking sheet that held the eggplant, moved the eggplant to one side and added the sweet potato to that sheet. I put it back into the oven for another 12 minutes.
Finally, after that 12 minutes was over, I removed that same baking sheet one last time, moved the sweet potato over to one side and added the zucchini. I placed the tray back into the oven for the last 12 minutes.
At the end, I had one tray with the roasted peppers on it and another tray with roasted eggplant, sweet potato and zucchini on it.
Reduce the heat in the oven to 325 degrees.
Caramelize the Onions
Warm a large skillet on your stove top over medium heat. Once the pan is to temperature, add two tablespoons of olive oil to it. Add the onions with a few pinches of salt and stir. Cook and stir for about 25 minutes or until the onions brown nicely.
Once that’s done, turn off the heat.
Bake the Tart Crust
Be sure the crust is completely thawed. Then, unroll it and press it into a greased 9″ tart pan.
Cover the pan with parchment paper and use the lid of a smaller pot to hold the paper down to the dough. Then, place the pan in the oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. The crust should bake and brown lightly.
The crust should shrink slightly during the baking. Don’t worry about that.
Fill the Tart with Ingredients
Now that the vegetables are cooked and the tart is baked, you can begin putting everything together. At this point, you can spread the caramelized onions across the bottom of the crust. On top of that, you can place some of the peppers, sweet potato, eggplant and zucchini.
On top of the vegetables, place a few dabs of ricotta cheese around the tart. You can also spread the crumbled feta evenly over the vegetables.
Mix the Eggs & Cream
In a medium sized bowl, add the eggs and the cream and whisk these ingredients together well. Also add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper to the bowl. Mix these ingredients well too.
Pour as much of this mixture as possible into the tart. It should fill the crust up to the edge. Don’t worry if it spills over slightly. Everything will cook together.
Add Tomatoes & Bake
Finally, distribute the tomato halves, cut side up, across the tart. Sprinkle the thyme over everything.
When all of the assembly is complete, place the tart tray into the oven on the center rack. Bake the tart anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour. I had to keep mine in the oven for slightly longer because I really stuffed it with vegetables. As it bakes, the moisture from everything will evaporate and the center will somewhat flatten out. After you pull it out of the oven, it will flatten even more.
When you see the ingredients begin to brown on the tart, you’ll know it’s finished. Turn off the heat and remove the tray from the oven. Allow the tart to cool for at least 15 minutes before attempting to remove it from the tray.
Plate & Serve
Once it’s cool, you can pop the tart out of the tray, cut it up, plate it and serve. Enjoy!
The Final Vegetable & Cheese Tart
I told you it took a little while to prepare this tart. I’m definitely going to make this dish again, but when I do, I’m going to maximize my time by preparing multiple tarts. I think that would be much more efficient. It really is good though. I love this recipe. Thanks for reading!
That looks delicious. I will be trying this recipe very soon!
Awesome, Steve. Let me know how it turns out and what you think of it.