La Festa al Fresco: Tomato & Saffron Tart

I'm so close to being late for La Festa al Fresco - tsk, tsk, but I'm telling you, traffic was just HORRIBLE! ;-)

Lis and Ivonne asked us all to bring something fresh and seasonal for the party, so... wait a minute, it's stuck down here in the big brown bag... Yes, of course I brought something! - what kind of guest would I be if I didn't? I'm not so rude as to be both late and empty-handed!

Fresh, seasonal ingredient? You know it, I know it - it's got to be tomatoes. While I haven't succeded in getting the cut-off's I got from my Bonus-Mom's green house tomatoes to produce anything resembling the amount needed for this, tomatoes are now and here and everywhere - and they're the star ingredient in this yellow-like-the-sun Tomato & Saffron Tart from Tamasin Day-Lewis' The Art of the Tart. Great book and a fantastic tart! I kept expecting shellfish every time I took a bite of it, because what I usually associate with saffron is Bouillabaise. There is no shellfish in it, but you can sure taste the saffron! I actually thought the spice was used mostly for it's color, but WOW! It has it's very own personality. This tart is a fantastic way of letting it be a star ingredient, along with the tomatoes of course.

I'm gonna cheat, because I am late (c'mon, I know it!) and just point you here (scroll down, it's the bottom post - this was the nearest a permalink I could find), where someone else has been so good as to print out the recipe. The shortcrust pastry I use is from Martha Stewart, but use whichever one you feel confident about. I might not have gotten the tomatoes from my balcony, but I did get my basil from the balcony - now that's fresh, isn't it? I wouldn't say you have to necesarily follow the recipe for the tomato sauce - just make your standard one, but keep the spices subtle, and let it boil down 'till jammy consistency. Also, I only needed about half of what is stated for the custard - my tart pan is a bit smaller than what was asked for, so that probably explains it. You could easily do both tomato sauce and (of course) the pastry up untill the rolling out and baking stage the day before you need to serve the tart. And, seeing this is a potluck sort of party, why not do little individual tarts?

Now, scoot on, I have to go say hi to everyone - that's the problem (or the fun part?) with being late, you have to shake hands and smile at a million strangers before you get to the food and drinks! Hi! *Waves* Gosh, I know a lot of the people here already! And there's a bunch I've never met before too! Thanks for the invitation, Ivonne and Lis - I'm sure we'll have a blast (and just push me in the back when you want me to go home - I'm sure I'll be able to roll all the way, what with my tummy so full of goodies!;-))

Tagged with la festa al fresco