Tomato and basil slice.

Now you seem to be seeing a lot of tart like this in the shops, or are they slices, any way they sell for about two to three pounds and they are not worth it. I mean they taste nice and you can have them looking great but are the really worth the money, I am not sue. So you do not need a lot of skill just arrange thing in a nice patterned and you have what I call a very nice slice or tart, you decide what you want to call it.

For this one you will need the following ingredients

110g/4oz puff pastry
1 beef tomato, cut into slices
A good handful of fresh basil leave
5 or 6 tined anchovies
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
10 to 15 black olives
A little olive oil
55-85g/2-3oz gruyere cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk

Now you need to make your base first so start by chopping up the anchovy’s together then with the flat edge of a knife make them in to a paste. Take most of the basil and chop that as fine as you can. Then do the same with the black olives, add that to the anchovies and garlic then add a little olive oil to the mix. You want to make a paste not a dressing so not too much oil.

Now turn on your oven and set to 220c/425f and then flour a side and roll out your pastry. Once you have rolled and prepared your pasty in to either a square, oblong or circle then crimp the edges.  Now let it rest in the fridge for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Slice the beef tomato as thin as you can but remove the stalk part first. Now take out your pastry and spread a thin layer of the olive and basil base. Then arrange the tomato slices on top of that. Now season the tomato with black pepper and use the left over basil leaves to go on top of the tomato. Now great the cheese and sprinkle that rather liberally over the tomato. Now as you do all this you want to keep a good 15mm to 20mm or ½in gap around the edge, to allow the pastry to rise and hold everything in place.

To make your egg wash use the egg yolk and some water, about a 50/50mix.  Now brush the edges of the pastry with the egg wash and get it in the oven. It will take about 8 to10 minutes bake so that the edges are all crisp and golden.

Then you can have it hot or let it cool and have it latter , however you want you tart, slice or is it a savoury pastry, you call it what you want.