A month ago, in a little church on an island surrounded by the sea, I got married. As the sea pulls back at low tide, it uncovers a rocky path to the church. We walked across in a haze of sea mist and it felt like something out of a gothic novel. It was, as weddings should be, a fairytale day.
After a misty start, the sun broke through as we gathered on the lawn for drinks and feasted on slow-cooked fennel arancini, dusted with pecorino and a drizzle of honey. There were fried courgettes with lemon and rosemary aioli and garden crudites in every colour of the rainbow. We drank our G&Ts with gin from Snowdonia and finished the meal with a tower of brown-sugar meringues, cherries, lemon curd and myrtle syrup.
The hardest part of picking the menu was what to put at the heart of the meal. How I eat has become so defined by things to share, but something about the occasion made it feel right to have a beautiful plate of food for each person. After thinking, trying and tasting a number of options, we plumped for a tomato tarte tatin: it screams summer in its vivid colours and flavours, and it was universally loved.
Since then, I’ve been on a roll of summertime tarts – crisp pastry with a soft, light vegetable filling. They satisfy without leaving you too full. These two tarts hit that sweet spot, and unapologetically use shop-bought pastry – filo and puff – both of which I love to make, but perhaps not on a summer’s day.
A wedding-worthy tomato tarte tatin
This is the simplified version of the tart we ate on our wedding day – a perfect summer dinner. Thanks to the wonderful Sarah and Stuart from Bubble and Squeak Food for sharing the recipe.
Roasting the tomatoes takes a few hours but requires very little effort, so don’t be put off. I find it easier to cook the tomatoes overnight: I roast them at 100C/210F/gas very low for an hour then turn off the oven and leave them until the morning. This tart can be assembled ahead of time and kept in the fridge.
Serves 4-6
800g of good ripe tomatoes (I use a mixture of different coloured ones, both big and cherry)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
3 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar or honey
A small bunch of thyme or oregano, leaves picked
Butter, for greasing
A 200g pack of all-butter puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
50g of baby capers, drained
1 Halve the tomatoes and put them cut-side up on a baking tray with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake them in a low oven at 100C/210F for 3-4 hours to slowly roast and sweeten. You may need to take some of the smaller tomatoes out a bit earlier, so keep an eye on them. Once cooked, allow to cool a little.
2 Next make the caramelised onions. Heat a little olive oil on a medium heat and add the sliced onions. Cook for 10 minutes to sweeten and soften before adding the vinegar, sugar or honey and the leaves from a few sprigs of the oregano (saving the rest for later) and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 30-40 minutes until really soft and sticky.
3 Butter a cast-iron or heavy frying pan about 24cm in diameter and lay the tomatoes cut-side down in a kind of mosaic, fitting them all together. Once they are all squeezed in, scatter the onion over the top.
4 Roll out the pastry until it’s about 1cm thick and cut out a circle just bigger than your pan. Lay it over the onion mixture and tuck in the sides. You can stop here and put the tart into the fridge if you like.
5 Once you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Brush the pastry with a little beaten egg and put it into the oven for 25‑30 minutes until golden all over and bubbling around the edges.
6 While the tart is cooking, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan. Have a plate lined with some kitchen paper and a slotted spoon to hand. Once the oil is hot, add the capers. They will bloom into little flowers and crisp in just 30 seconds or so. Lift them out and quickly drain them on kitchen paper.
7 Once the tart is golden and bubbling, take it out of the oven and allow it to sit for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edge and carefully turning out on to a plate. Scatter the capers over the tart before serving.
Summer frying pan tart
This is a tart quick enough to make on a weeknight. I use an ovenproof frying pan instead of a tart tin, and a vegetable filling with super-quick grated courgettes and shredded chard.
Serves 4-6
2 red onions
Olive oil
500g courgettes
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked and chopped
½ bunch of fresh oregano
3-4 sheets filo pastry
25g butter, melted
200g rainbow chard
2 eggs
A few sprigs of mint, leaves picked and chopped
100g pecorino or parmesan cheese (I use a vegetarian one)
1 unwaxed lemon
100g feta cheese
100g black olives (I use kalamata)
1 Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. You’ll need a 24cm ovenproof frying pan.
2 Put a saucepan on a low heat while you finely chop the onions. Turn the heat up to medium, add a little olive oil and cook the onions for 5 minutes, until soft and sweet.
3 While the onions are cooking, peel and roughly grate all the courgettes but one. Add the grated courgette to the onions along with the thyme leaves and oregano, and cook for 5–10 minutes, until the mixture is dry.
4 Meanwhile, unwrap the sheets of filo and lay them one by one over your frying pan, brushing each sheet with a little melted butter before layering. Leave a little of the pastry to overlap around the edges – you will fold this in later. Keep laying the filo in the pan until you have a good, sturdy 3- or 4-sheet layer all over – you may need to patch it together bit by bit if you have small sheets. Slice the remaining courgette into thin coins.
5 Once the courgettes have been frying for around 5 minutes, add the chard stalks and cook for a few more minutes, then scoop the mix into a bowl to cool. Crack in the eggs, add the chopped mint and grate in the pecorino or parmesan. Season with freshly ground black pepper and mix together well. Spoon the courgette mixture into the pan and put on a medium heat.
6 Working quickly, shred the chard leaves and toss with the juice and zest of the lemon and a little oil. Scatter the chard on top of the courgette mix, followed by the little coins of courgette, pushing down a little into the mixture. Dot with the feta and de‑stoned olives on top. Fold the excess filo pastry back over the filling to form a wavy edge. Put on the bottom of the oven and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp.
7 Remove from the oven, cut into six generous slices and serve with a lemon-dressed green salad.
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food
