Late-Summer Harvest Recipe: Roasted Tomato and Zucchini Tart
The last week of August has a way of turning the kitchen counter into a market stall you never planned to open. Four zucchini the length of your forearm, a bowl of tomatoes that must be eaten today, and a bunch of thyme going woody at the base. This tart is what to do with all of it. A thin layer of ricotta or mustard, roasted tomatoes, zucchini that has been salted and blotted dry, and enough herbs to make the kitchen smell like the garden. Nothing delicate, nothing that demands precision — just a good reason to heat the oven while the evenings are still warm.
Why Roasting Earns Its Place
Tomatoes and zucchini arrive at the same moment and both carry a great deal of water. Put them raw into a pastry case and you get a soggy bottom and a puddle at the center. Roasting solves that in one step: the oven drives off moisture, concentrates the sugars in the tomatoes, and gives the zucchini a little color and firmness instead of a limp texture.
There is a second reason, less technical. Roasted tomatoes taste more like tomatoes. A single tray of halved fruit, olive oil, salt and a few sprigs of thyme, left alone for half an hour, will do more for this tart than any amount of seasoning added later.
Choosing and Prepping the Vegetables
Tomatoes
Mixed sizes are fine — cherry tomatoes, small plums, the big irregular ones that never made it to a perfect shape. Halve anything small, quarter anything large, and leave the skins on; they hold the shape together and add a pleasant chew. Very watery varieties benefit from a short rest on a tray lined with a clean tea towel while the oven heats.
Zucchini
Small to medium zucchini have fewer seeds and a firmer texture than the marrows that appear in September. Slice them about 5mm thick on the diagonal, which gives more surface for browning and a nicer look in the finished tart.
- Layer the slices in a colander, sprinkling a little fine salt between each layer.
- Leave for 20 minutes while you deal with the tomatoes and the pastry.
- Press gently, then pat dry with a towel — squeeze a little, but don't crush.
- Toss with olive oil and a grind of pepper before they go anywhere near the oven.
That salting step is the most useful habit in this recipe. Skip it and the tart will still taste fine; do it and the texture will be noticeably better.
A Forgiving Pastry Base
Shortcrust is the right choice: sturdy enough to hold a wet filling, plain enough not to compete. For a 24cm tart tin, rub 200g of plain flour and a pinch of salt with 100g of cold butter cut into cubes, until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add one egg yolk with a tablespoon or two of cold water, bring it together without kneading, flatten into a disc, and rest it in the fridge for half an hour.
Roll it thin — about 3mm — line the tin, prick the base, and chill again for ten minutes. Line with parchment and baking beans and bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes, then remove the weights and bake another 5 minutes until the surface looks dry rather than pale and raw. This blind bake is not optional; it is what keeps the base crisp under all that vegetable.
A good store-bought all-butter shortcrust will do the job on a hot afternoon. Puff pastry works too, but bake it on a flat tray rather than in a deep tin, and expect a crisper, more fragile result.
Roast First, Assemble Later
Spread the tomatoes cut side up on a tray, drizzle with olive oil, scatter salt, pepper and thyme, and roast at 200°C for 25 to 35 minutes, depending on size. They are ready when they have slumped, the edges have begun to caramelize, and the juices on the tray have thickened rather than run. Let them cool slightly; hot tomatoes will steam the pastry.
Zucchini need less time — 12 to 15 minutes on a second tray, or a few minutes on a hot griddle pan if you want stripes and a little char. Roast them until just tender. They will finish cooking in the tart.
The Layer That Holds It Together
Something creamy or something sharp, spread thin over the pastry base, keeps the vegetables from sitting directly on the crust.
- Whipped ricotta with lemon zest and a pinch of salt — mild, soft, and good with basil.
- Goat cheese loosened with a spoonful of cream — tangier, and excellent with thyme.
- Dijon mustard brushed sparingly — sharp and light, best when the tomatoes are very sweet.
Herbs go in two stages. Woody ones — thyme, oregano, marjoram — go in with the vegetables so they mellow in the oven. Soft ones — basil, parsley, chives — are scattered over the tart after baking, when their flavor is still bright. A pinch of chili flakes somewhere in the middle is rarely a mistake.
Assembly and Baking
Spread the base layer, arrange the zucchini in a rough overlapping pattern, then settle the tomatoes among them, cut side up. Do not press down; leave a little height. Drizzle with the roasting juices and a fresh glug of olive oil, and crumble over a little more cheese if you like.
Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 to 35 minutes, until the pastry is deep golden at the edges and the filling looks set rather than wet. If the top is coloring too fast, a loose sheet of foil over it for the last ten minutes will do. Then — and this matters — let it rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting. Straight from the oven, the filling is still loose and will slide.
Variations Worth Trying
- A layer of slow-cooked onions underneath the zucchini, for sweetness.
- Feta crumbled over the top with mint instead of basil.
- A few chopped anchovies and black olives, with the mustard base.
- Three eggs beaten with 100ml of cream poured over the vegetables before baking, for a more custardy tart.
- Griddled zucchini arranged on top after baking, for a fresher, greener version.
Serving, Keeping, and the End of the Season
This tart is best warm or at room temperature, which makes it useful for a table of people arriving at different times. A green salad dressed sharply, or a plate of sliced tomatoes with nothing but salt, is enough alongside. Leftovers keep, covered, for three days in the fridge; reheat in a low oven rather than a microwave, or eat it cold with a little olive oil poured over.
If you want to freeze one, freeze the roasted vegetables and the raw pastry case separately, then assemble and bake from frozen with an extra ten minutes in the oven. A fully baked tart freezes acceptably, but the pastry softens.
By early September the zucchini will be larger and seedier. Slice them thinner, salt them longer, and the tart will still work — that is the point of a recipe like this. It bends with the garden instead of asking the garden to bend.
Photo: moerschy / Pixabay
