Roasted Tomato & Pesto Tart

Slow roasted tomatoes, left on the vine, are something you should always have floating around your summer kitchen. Although the tomato stems and leaves aren’t much worth eating raw or in large quantities, adding just a few to your cooking imparts an extra depth of flavour to the tomatoes.
For this tart, the key is really to be patient while slow-roasting the tomatoes. They need a good hour to blister, caramelise and lose a little of their juices. Once the tomatoes are done, this recipe comes together really easily (you can roast the tomatoes a day ahead of time if you like). It makes a great light, summery main for four people.

Roasted Tomato & Pesto Tart

Serves 4

Ingredients

600g cherry tomatoes on the vine

Peel of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp olive oil

1⁄4 tsp salt

300g puff pastry

2 tsp milk

2 Tbsp capers

1 large red chilli, diced

100g feta

For the Basil dressing

1⁄2 cup fresh basil

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

Pinch of salt

1 Tbsp lemon juice

NOTES

If you can’t find cherry tomatoes on the vine, no big deal. Regular cherry tomatoes will work just fine (but the ones on the vine do look extra pretty, so use them if you can).

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 ̊C conventional (160 ̊C fan forced). If using frozen puff pastry, take it out of the freezer to thaw.

Put the cherry tomatoes and lemon peel on a baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast for 60 minutes, until the cherry tomatoes are blistered and have started to caramelise.

Take the sheet of puff pastry and, using a sharp knife, lightly score a border of about 3cm around the edges. Prick the centre of the puff pastry with a fork, leaving the border untouched. Brush a little milk around the border, then place a sheet of baking paper in the centre of the pastry, weighing it down with pastry weights.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The border of the puff pastry should start to rise up in flaky layers. Remove the baking paper and baking weights from the centre of the pastry and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, until the pastry starts to brown. If the centre of the pastry starts to rise up, tap it back down with the back of a spoon.

Top the pastry with the roasted cherry tomatoes, lemon peel, capers and chilli. Crumble the feta on top. Return to the oven and bake a further 15-20 minutes (until the puff pastry is golden brown)

Blend together all dressing ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over the tart just before serving.

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