We finally have some tomatoes ripening in our garden and this Tomato Tarte Tatin is one of my favorite things to make for a light summer meal. Unfortunately, there was not quite enough tomatoes ready in the garden, so I had to add some from the market.

emptied tomatoes

Emptied tomatoes (Photo© France Just For You)

 

This recipe feeds about 8 people. I like to serve it with a simple green salad with garlic croutons and a crisp and cold white wine from the Mâcon area.

Ingredients:

  • 12 medium sized tomatoes, cut into halves and emptied
  • 5 tablespoons of tapenade, preferably made from black olives, but green will work too
  • Olive oil
  • Pâte brisée (pie crust) – I just buy one from the supermarket
  • Herbes de Provence
  • Salt and pepper
  • Optional: ¾ cup goat’s cheese and a handful of basil leaves

 

Instructions

  • Pre-heat the oven to 350°F and grease the bottom of a round quiche-style dish with olive oil.
  • Place the emptied, halved tomatoes, skin side down, in a circle filling the dish. You can sort of squeeze in the tomatoes because they will shrink a little while cooking.
  • Top the tomatoes with salt, pepper, herbes de Provence and a good drizzling of olive oil. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes, until tender, then take out, but do not turn off the oven.
  • Spread the tapenade on the crust to about 1 inch from the edges. Delicately place the crust over the tomatoes, tapenade side towards the tomatoes, and tuck the edges down towards the tomatoes.

 

Tapenade on a crust

 

  • Place in the oven for 30–40 minutes, until the crust is cooked and golden.
  • Let the tarte cool off a little, take a knife to light loosen the edges, then flip the tarte over onto a service platter.
  • If you’d like, you can crumble the goat’s cheese and basil on top, or serve as is. The tarte can be served warm or at room temperature.

Tomato tarte tatin

Laura with her homemade tomato tarte tatin (Photo© France Just For You)

France Just For You

Experts in self-drive tours in France

Travelers Reviews

5.0
Cathy
France Just For You planned the trip of a lifetime for my husband and me. We traveled to Normandy, St. Saint Michele, the Loire Valley and Provence. We are typically not road trip travelers, but this adventure brought us closer to the wonderful people of France than any group tour or "drop and plop" vacation could ever do. The bed and breakfasts …
Patty & Nicole
My daughter and I went to Paris and Provence area for her college graduation. France for You provided a tremendous amount of information, maps, advice etc to book us the perfect trip. The B&Bs were charming and very convenient to beautiful sites and shopping. They are the experts on Traveling through France!! You will not be disappointed if you use …
Susan
This was a wonderful way to travel in France! Our tours were wonderful and the guidebook was very helpful. Each day we had suggestions of things to do and we loved every suggestion! Our car and our accommodations were first class. Having the french phone made travel easy since we could use Waze and Google Maps. If we return to France, we will …
Jodi
My husband and I have both been to Europe multiple times in our school/college days but not since we've been married- so over 19 years! We finally got it together to plan a return trip together. Since it had been so long we weren't confident in planning it on our own but didn't want to be hearded around like cattle. Anyway, we found Emilie and she …
Naomi
Our trip was arranged and detailed well in advance, with reservations for activities and places of special interest, and free days with suggestions for things to see and do. We fell in love with Dordogne and the Paleolithic caves for which we had reserved tours, and were able to take in another cave the next day at the suggestion of our B&B hostess …
Jan & Ray
We were overwhelmed by the wealth of information available when attempting to plan our 6 week self drive holiday in France. Never having been to France before we found the task daunting and sifting through forums full of information only confused us. We have traveled in New Zealand using a New Zealand based travel adviser and decided to look into …