- Hey guys, so summer is in full swing,
and one of my favorite things to do this time of year
is get engrossed in a good book.
So when Audible asked me if I would be interested
in promoting their app, I said sure.
I thought it would be a great opportunity
for us to kick off a two part summer book club.
So this month and next,
I will be sharing with you
some of my favorite books found in the app
and the recipes inspired by them.
If you're not familiar with Audible,
it's a terrific service
that allows you to download your favorite books,
magazines and newspapers all to your mobile device.
Genius, right?
I love this app because I commute an hour each way
to work during the week and this app allows me
to listen to some of my favorite books
during my daily commute.
If you'd like to try the Audible app,
they are offering a 30 day trial
of their service for free.
Perfect timing for all of your summer reading.
So in the description you will find a link.
So for this month, I wanted to share with you
one of my favorite books found in the app.
It's called A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle.
Now this book has been around for a few years,
but for me it never loses it's appeal.
It's the true story of an English couple
that moves to Provence to buy an old French house
in the Luberon region of France and fix it up
and you can just imagine
all of their trials and tribulations
in doing so and that's what makes
the book so entertaining.
So when I think about that book
and I think of Peter and his wife
sitting on their old terrace
in their beautiful French house,
I think of them enjoying something like this,
a delicious tomato tart Provencal.
It's a dish that's very popular
in the south of France especially this time of year
when tomatoes are at their peak
and I tell ya, it's the perfect thing
to have for a summer starter or light lunch as well.
Let me show you how to make it.
The first thing we're gonna do
is create the crust for out tart.
So in the bowl of a food processor,
you're going to add a cup and three quarters of flour,
one teaspoon of salt, and two teaspoons of dried thyme.
Go ahead and put the lid on your processor
and give it a pulse.
To that we are going to add 10 tablespoons of cold butter
diced into cubes, go ahead and just pulse that processor
until all of that butter is incorporated
and you have a course meal on your hands.
Then in a small bowl you're to add
one egg and two tablespoons of ice water.
You can whisk that up with a fork
and then you're slowly gonna add
that to your food processor.
Then you'll see you'll start
to get a nice dough development.
Then you're gonna turn your dough out
onto a floured surface and now you can see
that thyme that we added to our flour
is now speckled throughout our dough
and it is going to infuse our crust
with a delicious thyme flavor.
Then we are gonna cut our dough in half
because we are going to create two rectangular tart shells.
I like to use the square or rectangular shells
for something that's savory like a tomato tart
because I for so reason always associate
the round tarts for things that are sweet,
but if you only have a round tart shell,
you can use that as well.
You just wanna make sure that the tart shell
is none stick and that it also has a removeable bottom.
That's just gonna help your tart
be released in a much easier way.
Then you can form your dough into a rectangle,
and then another good tip is to take the tart tin
and put it just to the side of your dough,
that way when you roll out the dough,
you can make sure that you're actually rolling it oUt
long enough to actually fit in your tin.
Then you can take your dough and turn it around
and roll it out about five inches.
Then to transfer your dough, here's what I think
is the easiest thing to do.
Just go ahead and flop it over your rolling pin,
transfer it over to your tart tin,
press it inside, and then any of the overlap
you wanna fold inward and then just press it into the tin.
This will allow your crust to be a little bit
more reinforced on the side
which is a good thing to do anytime you're making a tart,
and then go ahead and press the dough into the tin
until everything is nice and fitted
and then you cut off the excess with a sharp knife.
You're gonna repeat the same process
for the second tin and then your dough is done.
Now for the fun part, we're going to fill these tarts
with a combination of a few things.
The first thing we're gonna do
is lay down two tablespoons of Dijon mustard.
This is a wonderful thing to add
because it's a great flavor combination
when we layer on the cheese and the tomatoes.
It sounds like maybe a strange thing to add,
but it'll give this tart a really nice zing.
So go ahead and just spread a thin layer on both tarts.
Then on top of that we're going to add
a cup of grated Gruyere cheese to each tart,
and then it wouldn't be Provencal
if we didn't add some herbs to Provence.
So many of you know me that this is one
of my favorite flavorings out there
and if you're not familiar with it,
it's just a really great combination
of dried herbs, all the herbs that are found
in this region of France.
You can actually make your own
if you can't find it in the super market
and I've put a note in the description
on how to do that.
Now for the tomatoes,
the crown and glory of this tart.
Now I really like to mix them up
because I think it's great to mix the colors
and the different textures
of all the different tomatoes
you can find in the supermarket this time of year.
So I will usually use one red tomato,
one yellow or orange tomato,
and then one darker tomato like a purple tomato
or what they call a brown tomato
is another good thing to add.
You're going to just slice them thin
about a quarter inch and then I like
to alternate the colors.
So maybe you do a red one
and then an orange one and then a brown one,
whatever color pattern you like best,
go ahead and do that
and just fill out the bottom of each tart.
Then all of the different gaps
that you see that are still left,
we're gonna fill those in with some cherry tomatoes
and you can also find heirloom multi-colored cherry tomatoes
which are also a great thing to add.
So you can go ahead and just slice those as well
and fill in all the gaps.
Again, alternating the colors.
Then the final thing I like to do
before baking them is just pop them in the freezer
or the refrigerator for at least
10 to 15 minutes just so that, that dough
has a chance to firm up
which will really help when it hits the hot oven.
If the dough is not firm when it hits a hot oven,
it's going to sink down and become misshapen.
So it's much better if you wanna preserve
the beautiful shape of the tart
to make sure that it's nice and chilled.
Then you're gonna bake your tart at 400 degrees
for anywhere from about 30 to 35 minutes
just until that pastry is gold and brown
and you can see that the tomatoes are nicely baked.
Go ahead and take your tarts out of the oven
and you can let them cool slightly
and then you're going to add some freshly cracked pepper,
a little bit of Fleur de Sel sea salt.
And some ribbons of fresh basil and there you have it,
a tomato tart Provencal inspired
by one of my favorite books, A Year in Provence.
I think you'll find it makes for the perfect
starter for a summer dinner party
or if you wanna serve it with a tall salad
for a light summer brunch.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think
and I also hope that you try the Audible app.
I think you'll find in the summer
when you're traveling or in your car,
it is a great thing to keep everybody entertained.
Alright you guys, I will see you back here next week
when I'm gonna share with you one of my favorite
French pastries, a Paris-Breast.
I'll see you then, bye.
(optimistic music)
(singing in foreign language)