A Tomato Tart Round Up!

Champêtre Kitchen: A Summer Hit List.

For my faithful long-time readers and eager newcomers, welcome to the Champêtre Summer Hit List of cooking at Camont! If you haven't already mastered this simple summer treat, now is the time. Up first— the famous Tarte de Tomates.

Tarte de Tomate 2025 edition, Kate Hill

#1 Tarte de Tomate

From the earliest summer days of cruising on the Julia Hoyt along the French canals, some version of this tomato tart has graced our Gascon table- for aperitifs, lunches with a salad or two, and as a starter for a summer supper. Although there are a hundred ways into this culinary harbor, I return again and again to the basics. What started as an easy apéro for the barge mate, Jhon, to make with store-bought butter pastry, a jar of mustard, and a few tomatoes, while I was out wine tasting with guests, became a Camont kitchen standard. Over the years, I tweaked and upgraded, flipped upside down, and covered in goat cheese or drizzled with honey, but I am most happy when I return to the basics.

Start with the first post, all free to access, and work through all three. The most important points to remember:

• Buy only solid ripe heirloom tomatoes; the denser the flesh, the better. I prefer Coeur de Boeuf here in France.

• Cut them into very thick slices, as thick as your tart pan is deep and squeeze them all together to form a solid, thick layer.

• Brush the pastry with mustard (or mustard and egg) and let it dry for a while before placing the tomato slices to form a sog-proof bottom.

• Bake in a hot oven (200 °C/415 °F) on convection; this helps evaporate the tomato juices and brown the bottom pastry.

• Bake long enough to really brown the bottom and go beyond the ‘golden’ stage.

Let me know if you have any questions! Here are your recipes: just click on each one and read on your browser or in the Substack App. Have fun!

Kate