Oh you tart!

Us Fire & Wine girls really know how to tart it up.

Look mom, my first tart!

I was more than a little excited that my goat cheese & zucchini tart not only came out looking pretty good, but it tasted amazing. The crust was buttery and flaky and the filling was savory with hints of zucchini and pops of tomato, basil and goat cheese in each creamy bite.

I’m not going to lie. This is a lot of work. But it came together much faster and easier than I had anticipated.

The key is to organizing yourself in the kitchen before your start. (Isn’t that always the key? The French have some fancy term for it, but I just call it “get your act together.” )

For my recipe (And yes, I’m calling it mine because while I borrowed elements from other recipes, I put them together into one lovely little tart. But don’t worry, I’ll be giving credit where it’s due.)

 I’ll lay out the order of activities in the kitchen for you. I find this helpful.

A note on Fire & Wine:

One of the delights of Fire & Wine night is trying a new technique, recipe or food group each week. Sometimes it’s as “simple” as learning to put together a classic salad . Other times it requires leaving my comfort zone entirely.

These are the weeks I relish. Because they make me a better cook and help me push the envelope on what I’m willing to do.

Three years ago I told Virginia Willis I did not cook. I freaked out when she asked me to prepare her apple crumble for a morning news program we had pitched her on for her cooking demo with the American Royal. (She was going to prepare the crumble in studio, but needed a “finished product” to show.)

But Virginia was stubbornly insistent that I could do it. For whatever reason, she believed in me. (Also, she really needed that crumble.)

Since then, I have come a long way, both in my personal life and in the kitchen. I have channeled that spirit of cantankerous adventure in my cooking. Sure, I may fail. But even in my failures, I learn something.

So if you are new to Fire & Wine night posts, I encourage you to experience the joy that comes from taking a culinary risk in your own kitchen. I mean, you can always order a pizza in the event of a disaster.

Back to the show.

Time to get tarty.

First, make your crust*:

1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter cut into ½ inch cubes

2-4 Tablespoons ice water

 In a food processor mix the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse just until the mixture comes together in pea sized pieces. Add 1 tablespoon ice water at a time until the mixture comes together as a dough.  Remove from the food processor and shape into a disc. Sprinkle both sides with flour (or just place in parchment paper as I did), wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

 While the dough is doing its thing, start on your filling*

2 large zucchini

3 tablespoons butter

1 small onion

10 cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp chopped basil

1/2 cup of ricotta

2 eggs lightly beaten

2 tbsp chopped basil

2 ounces Goat cheese

2 tablespoons of milk

Salt to taste throughout

 Chop onion and set aside.

 Finely chop cherry tomatoes. Place in cheese cloth and strain. Set aside.

 Start to boil salted water in large pot.

 Grate1 zucchini into a bowl lined with cheese cloth add 1 tsp of salt.  Toss in salt and set aside to weep. (Don’t you weep, though.)

 Get out a cookie sheet or large plate. Line with paper towels.

 Slice remaining zucchini into rounds and blanch for one minute and spread out on the plate or cookie sheet.

 Go ahead and preheat oven to 365 degrees F.

 Wring out the cheesecloth with the grated zucchini to remove moisture.

 Heat butter in skillet. Remove a little bit of the butter for later.

 Add onions and cook until soft (5 minutes) Add grated zucchini.  Cook another 5 minutes. Remember to salt a little at each step.

 Transfer onion/zucchini mix to a bowl to cool.

 Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit for 10 minutes.

 Do dishes or tidy up.

 Then, sprinkle dough lightly with flour and use a rolling pin to roll out to a 12 inch circle about 1/8th of an inch thick. Gently fold in half and place in tart pan.

 From this process on out, it did not go smoothly. There was a lot of dough manipulating to get my dough into the tart pan and smoothed out evenly. It wasn’t perfect, but it tasted good. I was pleased.

 Poke bottom of crust with fork and place in the oven for 8-10 minutes (until golden, but not brown.)

While it’s cooking, return to the bowl with the cooling zucchini and onion mixture. Stir in tomatoes, almost all of the goat cheese, ricotta, basil and salt and pepper into bowl. Fold in eggs.

Add milk if you think it needs it to thin a bit.

Mix all ingredients well to incorporate.

 Remove crust from the oven. Cool for a few minutes.

 Place a layer of zucchini rounds at the bottom of the crust.

 Pour in mixture.

 Top with more rounds (you can get decorative if you don’t have enough to cover the entire top.)  Sprinkle with remaining goat cheese.

 Bake 40-45 minutes

 Remove and brush top with the leftover butter.

 Cook again for 20 minute, or until golden brown.

Served with a mixed green salad tossed with leftover green beans, olive oil and balsamic.

*Credits:

Crust – Recipe courtesy of

Italian Food Forever.

Filling- inspired by Saveur’s Zucchini Tart with Feta and the Italian Food Forever fillings.

So go, get your tart on! That’s an order from Queen of Quirky.