Rustic Tomato Tart

A beautiful tomato tart layered with jammy, caramelized onions, laced with fresh basil. A rustic free-form tart perfect for summer.

Rustic Tomato Tart

Free-form tarts are the savior of the unfussy cook. Unlike tarts baked in a pan, there’s no need to worry about trimming dough, rolling out perfect circles, or using pie weights. They’re the sort of thing I love to pull from my oven year round, but especially in conjunction with peak tomato season. A beautiful tomato tart layered with jammy, caramelized onions, laced with fresh basil alongside a simple green salad? Good lord yes.
Favorite Tomato Tart Recipe
This tomato tart recipe is a few personal winks, twists, and additions away from one of the classic versions you might find in France. I talk more about the crust I use down below, and the toppings as well. I love these sorts of tarts for picnics, beach days, and road trips, dinner gatherings, and potlucks - cut into wedges or grids. They show off the best flavors of the season, and once you make the dough (takes less than five minutes), the rest is a breeze.
Caramelized Onions for Tomato Tart Recipe

Let's Talk Toppings

You can keep the toppings as simple or as complex as you like, and the version here splits somewhere down the middle. The version you see pictured (and featured in the recipe) combines caramelized onions and peak, in-season, tomatoes as the core components. Cooking the onions takes a bit of time, but to be honest, if you do a big skillet full and keep them in the refrigerator, they’re great on pizzas, in sandwiches, and in noodle & pasta bowls throughout the week.
Tomato Tart Recipe
To the onions here, I add a big pinch of turmeric and lots of black pepper, but you don’t have to. You can think of the onions as their own component and season them as much or little as you like - as long as you imagine your seasoning will go well with tomatoes, you’re likely fine. There’s basically a world of possibilities. I can imagine cinnamon, cumin, caraway, ground peppers, curry blends, etc. all being wonderful additions. I talk more about toppings down below, but the tart dough is basically a blank, buttery canvas to experiment with.

Make-ahead Friendly

With a bit of advance planning, these sorts of tarts are completely weeknight friendly. Especially if you think of the tart dough as one component. You can make it days in advance and refrigerate. Or make extra, double-wrap and freeze - thawing before using (but keeping cold). I think of the toppings as the second component and often do a big batch of them over the weekend. For tarts like this one, I might caramelize the onions in advance by a day or two. Or browse your refrigerator for other ideas. If I had extra pesto, perhaps slather it across the dough before topping with other ingredients. Or, if it was winter, maybe I’d grab some roasted winter squash.

A Rustic Tart Crust

The crust of this tart deploys a favorite baking trinity of mine -  rye, cooked quinoa, and all-purpose (or bread) flour. I use a blend of these three ingredients increasingly often - when I bake sourdough, when I make flatbreads (and pizza crusts), and for tarts like these. The butter brings richness and flavor while you get the nutritional boost of the whole-grain quinoa and rye flour along with a bit of lightness from the white flour. If you nail the ratio correctly, you end up with goodness coming from your oven that is rustic, flavor-rich, and satisfying - with nice, flaky texture. AND the recipe introduces you to my favorite method for pulling a pie or tart dough together.
Tomato Tarts Before Baking

A Few Tart Tips

  • Make sure your toppings aren’t hot when you assemble your tart. Whether you’re making this tart, or riffing on it with another idea you have, make sure your roasted squash, or blistered mushrooms, or grilled squash are room temperature or colder. This way it wont melt the butter in your crust.
  • Work quickly when you’re rolling out your well-chilled dough. Make sure your counter and rolling pin are dusted with flour. If your dough is sticking at all and you get the sense it has become too warm, transfer it back to the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, and try again.
  • If you think your unbaked tart isn’t looking great, power through it. Look at my unbaked tart picture just above. It’s no prize winner, but have faith! They look exponentially better after they’ve been brushed with egg and baked until golden in a hot oven.
  • That also reminds me, resist the urge to under bake. I tend to go as long as I can in the oven, to get that nice color, and to give crispness and structure to the crust. You’re aiming for golden plus plus plus.

Tomato Tarts on Parchment Paper

Ideal Tomatoes for Tomato Tarts

I use a blend of whatever tomatoes are most flavorful at the moment. They don’t have to be the best looking tomatoes, and a tart like this is a great way to use slightly blemished tomatoes because once they bake you won’t know the difference. I like to use a mix of tomatoes of different sizes, and a mix of colors as well if I have them. Variety is all good here. Use what you’ve got as long as they taste good.
Close-up of Two Rustic Tomato Tarts
As I'm looking at this photo, I keep thinking to myself, "you should have kept it in the oven another five minutes." It has good color as-is, but it had the potential to get really, really good. Next time!
Tomato Tarts with Green Salad

Enjoy the tart(s)! Let me know if you experiment with the toppings in anyway. You know I love your wildcards! -h

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Rustic Tomato Tart

4.55 from 22 votes

As I mention up above, the one thing that makes assembling this tomato tart a breeze is a bit of advance planning. You can make the crust and the caramelized onions up to a few days in advance. Then, when you’re ready, simply pull them from the refrigerator, slice a few tomatoes, and roll out your crust, pick a few basil leaves from the garden, and you’re gold. This recipe makes 1 large tart, 2 7-inch tarts, or four small individual tarts.

Ingredients
  • 2-3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • fine grain sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric (optional)
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons cooked red or black quinoa*
  • 1/2 cup / 70g rye flour
  • 1/2 cup / 65g all-purpose flour
  • heaping 1/4 teaspoon fine grain salt
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
  • 3-4 tablespoons ice water
  • ripe tomatoes sliced 1/4-inch thick
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • To serve (any/all of the following): slivered basil, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil, herb flowers, a dusting of Parmesan or gruyere cheese
Instructions
  1. Start by caramelizing your onions. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, combine the onions, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt. Cook stirring regularly for 15-20 minutes or so, or until the onions are dark, deeply caramelized, and jammy in texture. Stir in the turmeric and black pepper, if using, remove from heat, and let cool. If you’re making your tart immediately, cool the onions by spreading them across a large plate and placing in the refrigerator. Alternately, if you’re baking the next day or two, transfer to a jar and refrigerate.
  2. Next up is making the tart dough. If you’re used to the typical food processor tart dough method, this is going to be different (although this stand mixer method I use for pie dough works great as well). If you're committed to making the dough by hand, and If the instructions are at all confusing you can watch the method here. I learned the technique from Pim years ago and it delivers the flakiness of tart dreams. To start, mix the flours, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and quinoa in a bowl and turn out onto the counter. Working quickly, cut the butter into four long slabs and arrange in a single layer across the surface of the flour. Hold a bench scraper (or wide metal spatula) in one hand, and use the palm of your other hand to smear the butter into the flour. Use the bench scraper to scrape the smeared flour-butter off the counter and back up into the pile. Use your palm to smear some more, scrape, and repeat. You want lots of feathery flakes throughout the flour. Drizzle the mixture with the ice water and smear, flip, and mix a few more times to bring it all together into a ball. Decide how many tarts you’d like to bake, and cut into that many equal pieces (1, 2, or 4). Shape into balls, press into discs, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 45 minutes or over night. You can also double wrap and freeze for up to a month or so at this point, thaw before using.

  3. When you’re ready to assemble your tart(s), preheat the oven to 400F with a rack in the center. Roll your dough out into a 1/8-inch thick circle shape on a floured surface, it doesn't have to be perfect. Transfer the rolled out dough to a piece of parchment paper. Arrange a generous amount of the onions in the center of your tart(s) leaving an inch-ish of border. Cover the onions with overlapping sliced tomatoes, then fold the tart dough in toward the filling, over lapping it just a bit. Brush any visible pasty with the beaten egg. Transfer, on the parchment paper, to a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is deeply golden.

  4. Finish with any/all of the suggested ideas - a dusting of cheese, but of lemon zest, lots or basil, definitely go for a drizzle of good olive oil. I love to enjoy this immediately, but it will hold up for later, if needed.
Notes

Makes one large tomato tart, or two 7-inch tarts, or four smaller individual tarts.

*How to cook quinoa.

Serves
4
Prep Time
1 hr
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
 
If you make this recipe, I'd love to see it - tag it #101cookbooks on Instagram!

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Recipe Rating




Comments

This method for dough is so cool, And really fun to do…smash and slide with palm! Haven’t ever come across this before and the pastry came out so delicious, flaky yet hearty…I will definitely be using it for other things as well. Another mind opener was turmeric and pepper in the caramelized onions, I would never have thought of that and it really elevated things a bit. I topped with goat cheese, chiffonaded basil, drizzled olive oil and lemon zest and wow. Gigantic keeper want to make every day thank you for this recipe am so very glad I made it.

Aofggpei

    Thank you!

    Heidi Swanson

Your instructions don't mention the envelope folding part. Is that more for pie dough and not for the tart, just an unnecessary step, or should I do that here, too. Dough is in the freezer for a speed-dinner attempt!

Jan

    Hi Jan - not necessary for this dough. If I'm reading your question correctly, that would give you more of a rough puff pastry. xx!

    Heidi Swanson

Hi, I made this recipe a year ago and it was great. Now, the video link doesnt seem to work and Im wondering if you can somehow post the original video? I remember that it helped a lot and I would love to see it again. Thank you!!

Jen

    Hi Jen! You're right, it looks like that page is redirecting! Good news is I'm seeing the original is still at the Internet Archive - here. Hope this helps, it's still my fave method.

    Heidi Swanson

This was really great. I added in some chopped garlic and sprinkled the egg washed crust with a bit of sea salt and black pepper before baking. Topped with lots of parsley, basil and a bit of lemon zest as it came out.

oaklandpat

    Love it! Always a fan of some finishing lemon zest!

    Heidi Swanson

I was looking for something to use up my rye flour and this recipe is the perfect way! I used pickled onions instead of caramelized onions, and it was delicious. The pastry was flaky and yummy!

Lucinda Glover

Do you have a recommendation for swapping the butter? Would coconut oil work, or olive oil?

Cyndi

    There are definitely 100% olive oil crusts out there if you give them a search. xx Or you could try a swap with cold extra virgin coconut oil, but I haven't tested that.

    Heidi Swanson

It looks very delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!

Triz Tan Barreno

I cooked the onions and some quinoa yesterday and finished making this today.. So good! Since I don't have basil, I used mint instead. It was delicious.

Kelsey Lane

    Thank you Kelsey! Love the mint swap!

    Heidi Swanson

okay, this was amazing. i didn't want to cook a whole batch of quinoa just for 3 Tb, but i would have used it if i had it on hand, it sounds great. instead, i subbed one Tb each sesame seeds, poppy seeds and corn meal, and used your smash-and-scrape method (yes!!) and it was so tender, but with nutty, crunchy bits. SO GOOD! right now, we have local creole tomatoes (louisiana), and they were just really amazing. i did add some maldon salt and fresh basil, but otherwise it needed nothing else. divine.

jess

    Love the swap Jess. I put cooked quinoa in a lot of things - doughs, muffins, tart crusts, pancake batter. Play around, it's hardto go wrong if you start with a bit and then scale up to your liking.

    Heidi Swanson

Wow! Tomato tart, so creative. I'll try this!

Dennis Yannakos

I really like the way you serve the dishes. And your dog is just a darling!

Moi Bride

    Thank you Moi! And she's a good litter helper.

    Heidi Swanson

Any way to veganize or just go butter-free? Not sure if an oil would be okay in the dough or a flax egg would work? Would love this to be my Sunday cooking activity!

Emily

Heidi, Did you get a dog? I ask because we are thinking of adding a four legged family member so I now seem to see dogs where ever I look. He/she is a cutie. The tomato tart is on plan for this week. Can’t wait it look delicious,.

Andrika

    Yes! About a year and a half ago? We adopted her from Camp Cocker Rescue :) They have a great Instagram account as well.

    Heidi Swanson

What can I substitute for the Quinoa? I just don't have any in my pantry. I do have chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, whole rye berries. Ideas?

Nan

    Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, or a blend. Millet would work. Maybe not chia because of the gel factor...Or you can leave it out!

    Heidi Swanson

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