Slow-Roasted Tomato and Fromage Blanc Tart

When I first decided I was going to make this tart, it was gong to be an authentic Italian artichoke and ricotta affair.

But due to the unfortunate combination of narrow-minded French supermarkets (its always a challenge to find things like ricotta), my slight fear of artichokes (a lot of work for small quantities of edible things) and my pea-sized attention span- the tart got a bit of a (what I like to call) make-over.

And joy to the world it did, it turned out to be delicious- just perfect to eat late on a hot summers night on a terrace overlooking the French countryside. Jealous yet? Well don't be! This is possibly on of the easiest things in the world to make, and as for the backdrop, I'm sure your creative little noggins can find a way to impress-ify your surroundings with unnecessary adjectives and (the tiniest) of white lies, like I do.

So here's to a tart...

Slow-Roasted Tomato and Fromage Blanc Tart

Ingredients-

Good splash of olive oil

550g of tomatoes

3/4 teaspoon of salt, divided

1/2 cup of fresh parsley leaves, minced

2 tablespoons of dried herb mix (optional)

3 large cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1 large egg

500g of fromage blanc

20 strokes of nutmeg

1 tablespoon of garlic butter (or an egg for glazing the pastry)

1/2 cup of grated parmesan

Freshly ground black pepper

1 package of prepared puff pastry (of course you can make it yourself, but it takes a very long time)

Method-

Preheat your oven to 160°C.

Find a medium sized dish suitable for baking, place your tomatoes inside, then give them a good slosh of olive oil and roll them around until coated on each surface.

Cut the garlic cloves into enough wedges to put one each in your tomatoes (I think I needed around 6 chunks). Make a cut in the top of each of the tomatoes and shove in the garlic chunks (vvvv satisfying feeling) then if you so please, sprinkle a tad of the dried herbs in little holes too.

Bake for at least an hour, or as long as possible before they start to burn.

In a pie tin, or casserole dish (or whatever else tickles your fancy for the shape of the pie), place a sheet of baking paper, and then press in the dough. With a knife, make lots of small incisions in the base to let out the hot air when baking. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is a light golden colour.

Grab a large mixing bowl, and add 1 egg, the fromage blanc, the nutmeg, the parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes and the flour (only if you think it needs thickening) then give it a good stir and pour into the pastry. Melt the garlic butter (or lightly whisk an egg) and coat the pastry you can see with the butter (or obviously the egg).

Increase the oven temperature to 180°C bake for 40 minutes or so or until the middle is set (you can test this my giving the pan a bit of a shake and seeing if the middle still wobbles).