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Cherry Tomato Crostata

August 15th, 2012

Did I forget to tell you that I am leaving for China on Friday? I think I did. Well I am, rural, South Eastern China, and I am bringing Pia with me. It will be a whirlwind 5 day trip where we will be staying with my Parents on a farm outside of a town called Taishan. I am going to be speaking at an event about Women who turn their passions into careers, so I thought that there could be no better situation in which to bring my daughter. It’s never to young to be inspired, right?!

I will do posts from over there, and I am excited to take lots of pictures of the region.
In the mean time, I am trying to empty the house of fresh produce, or I will come home to a big fat rotten refrigerator. Pete and Coco will undoubtedly be eating out for each and every meal while we are gone, and I always feel bad about spoiling and wasting food. Tomatoes are one of my prime targets right now.

We are in serious tomato season. Have you noticed? The techni-color gorgeous tomatoes at the store, the farmers market, maybe even your own garden. I love tomatoes, but to be honest, I have to think of all kinds of ways to use them up quickly enough, because I will never be that girl (I like to think of myself as a girl) that just pops a cherry tomato in my mouth.

They need to be dressed up with salt, olive oil, basil, preferably cheese. Something. Isn’t that terrible? I can’t help it. I still get flashbacks to when my grandparents used to try and force me to eat them raw even though I said I didn’t like them. So it’s not my fault that I would then gag them back up onto the kitchen floor. But we can talk about that another time.

Right now lets celebrate tomatoes (and the fact that I am not so traumatized that I can still enjoy them as an adult) in all their gorgeous glory. This kind of has all of my favorite tomato accompaniments involved: Cheese (ricotta to be specific), basil, olive oil, salt (obviously) and to really make things good- buttery puff pastry (my favorite cheater crust!).

This will take you five minutes to make, another 20 to bake and viola! Elegant, delicious and beautiful.

Please let me know what your favorite Tomato Recipes are? Or to make this one, this is what you do:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prepare a sheet pan with a silpat or sheet of parchment.

Lay out the sheet of puff pastry on the prepared sheet pan, and gently roll it out until it is about 1/3 larger in size than originally.

In a small bowl, mash together the ricotta, the garlic and some salt and pepper to taste.

When the oven has come up to temperature, then gently spread the ricotta into the center of the puff pastry and lay the basil leaves on top of the ricotta cheese.

Then place the cherry tomatoes on top of the cheese and basil.

Fold the edges of the puff pastry up around the cheese and tomatoes.

Drizzle everything with olive oil and sprinkle more salt and pepper over the crostata.

Bake at 425 for 25-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Slice and serve hot. (If desired, drizzle the balsamic reduction over the crostata.)