Summer Squash, Tomato, Goat Cheese & Mustard Tart

This is a beautiful, French-inspired, summer tart. It’s a great way to use up all that extra zucchini and yellow squash laying around this time of year. 🙂 Make the most of it before it’s all gone for the season!

What the final tart looks like. Yum! 🙂 (This was right before we took two slices, left the kitchen for 5 minutes, and when I came back my dog had eaten about half of it. 🙁 Lesson learned…again.

Roll out the crust and gently place in tart pan. Carefully form to the pan and smooth out any folds. Leave a little extra crust around the edges to allow for the crust to shrink up a bit.

Sliced veggies and rounds. At this point you would place pie weights in the crust, poke it with a fork a few times in the flat part of the crust and then bake it for 12-15 minutes. (I forgot to bake it before spreading with mustard in these pictures, so please bake it before adding any filling.)

There is one mistake in this picture. Please bake the crust for 12-15 minutes before spreading with mustard and adding the other fillings.

Here is the filled tart before it goes into the oven. You can use any kind of goat cheese or cow’s cheese that you like. I also dotted it with fresh rosemary and sprinkled the top with a little salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Yum! The taste of summer. 🙂

Tomato, Zucchini & Goat Cheese Tart

Yields: 2 tarts

Serves: 8 as an entree, 16 as a side dish

Ingredients:

Crust

 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• ½ cup cornmeal

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup cold butter

• 6-8 tablespoons cold (ice) water

 

 

Tart

 

• 1 small zucchini

• 1 small yellow squash

• 2 medium tomatoes

• 5-6 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 12 ounces goat cheese

• 3 sprigs rosemary

• Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Directions:

Cornmeal Crust

Cut butter into ½ inch cubes. Stir flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add butter cubes and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or use your fingers until the mixture resembles small peas.

Add the cold ice water by starting with 4 tablespoons. Incorporate that water into the dough. Add 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is a soft consistency, and pliable, but not too sticky. You want it to come together into a ball.

Place the dough in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Assembling the Tarts

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Divide the chilled dough in half. Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick and gently form to tart pan. Pierce gently with a fork and place pie weights on the dough. Repeat with second crust. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully remove the pie weights without burning yourself.

While the crusts are baking, slice the zucchini, yellow squash and tomato into ¼ inch slices. Slice the cheese into chunks and pull the rosemary off the stems.

When the crusts come out of the oven, spread them with a layer of mustard to your liking. At least thinly cover the entire crust. Then layer with multiple layers of the vegetables. Top with pieces of goat cheese and sprinkle with rosemary. Sprinkle with a few small pinches of salt.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until golden brown and the fully cooked through. Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper. Serve hot and enjoy!