Summer Tomato Galette

A galette is essentially a rustic pie. It can be filled with literally anything you have on hand, featuring your favourite vegetables or filled with summer fruits and frangipane. You don't have to be a whiz in the kitchen to make a successful galette, (the edges don't have to be perfect!) and this pastry is so simple that it is foolproof. One of our favourite ways to enjoy our abundance of home grown sweet cherry tomatoes in late summer is to throw them into a galette to enjoy for a late lunch on a balmy afternoon.

Ingredients:

For the pastry

2 cups plain flour

180g butter, cold, cubed

2 tsp salt

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

1/3 - 1/2 cup iced water

For the filling

3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup olive tapenade (we used a black olive tapenade)

1-2 tbs finely grated parmesan

1 tbs fresh finely cut chives

Meredith Dairy Goats Cheese or fresh burrata

Extra virgin olive oil

1 egg yolk

Method:

Begin by making the pastry. Add the flour to your food processor with the salt. Add the cubed butter and process in short bursts until the flour is coarse with small lumps of butter approximately the size of peas. Add the apple cider vinegar an 1/3 cup of iced water. Stir with a fork. Add the remaining water gradually and stir with a fork until the dough comes together.

Dust a work surface with flour and knead the flour until just smooth. Form into a smooth disc and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

While the dough is chilling, wash your cherry tomatoes, remove the stems and halve them. Pop them into a bowl, add the salt and sugar, stir well and set aside. This will help to draw out excess water from the tomatoes to ensure your galette doesn't have a soggy bottom.

Preheat your oven to 200°C.

Once the dough has sufficiently chilled, turn it out on a large piece of baking paper. Roll it out into a disc of approximately 35cm diameter.

Smear your tapenade over the base, leaving about 4cm border at each edge. Sprinkle half the parmesan over the tapenade. Drain the tomatoes and arrange them atop the tapenade. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan atop the tomatoes.

Fold over the clean borders edge by edge until you have closed the galette. Brush the edges with egg yolk. Use the underlying baking paper to slide the galette onto your baking tray. Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.

Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing. Top with crumbled goats cheese or fresh burrata, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh chives. Enjoy! X

Recipe adapted from Queen Meredith's Heirloom Tomato Galette (Wishbone Kitchen).