magnificent!

We have tomatoes coming out of our ears!  Finally, the fruit we’ve been patiently waiting for since MARCH is forthcoming!  I wanted to try a new tomato recipe, and I truly can’t remember, but it was either a magazine or blog post or probably both where I kept bumping into galettes.  A galette is a freeform crusty pastry, stuffed with either sweet or savory items.  It reminds me of a very close rustic cousin to the Upper Peninsula’s pasty, or hand held meat pie.  When I was little, I would devour pasties (pronounced pah-stee) when visiting my older siblings who were away at college in picturesque Marquette, MI.  Pasties are the original hot pocket and you could only find them after you crossed the Mackinaw Bridge.

galette, the pasty’s rustic cousin

With this recipe, I basically took my favorite caprese salad and put it in galette form.  Holy delicious pie, Batman!  It was hard to stop at one piece, let me tell you.  The Hubs declared, “this is like the fanciest pizza I’ve ever eaten, it’s like pizza wellington!”  Homemade mozzarella cheese from Lazzaroli’s around the corner,  homegrown roasted tomatoes and fresh torn basil from our balcony, and yes, even a homemade flaky pie crust made this pie extra special!  I felt like homemade freakin’ Martha Stewart!

our bounty!

First things first, if you didn’t grow some tomatoes, then get your ass to your local farmer’s market!  You galette will only be as good as the quality your ingredients and plastic grocery store tomatoes will not do.  Slice the tomatoes about 1/4″ thick, or if you have cherry or pear tomatoes, cut them in half.  Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse sea salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.

before…

Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 22 minutes.  The pear/cherry tomatoes will collapse a little bit, and that’s totally fine.  Set aside to cool while you work out the dough.

…and after!

I used to be terrified of making dough, but my friend Kathryn gave me the confidence to make my own pie dough crust!  It’s pretty simple, 2 cups of flour, 2 sticks of butter, very cold and cubed, a pinch of salt and 6-8 tablespoons of ice water.  Pulse in a food processor like 10-15 pulses, or until the butter is pea-sized.  Slap it on your floured surface and work it for one minute into a ball, I use the wedge technique from pottery class.  Divide the dough into 2 halves, wrap with saran, and place in the fridge.  Let it chill for at least 30 minutes.  You can make it a few days in advance and it’s even better when you have it in the fridge overnight.  It takes longer to wash the food processor (The Hub’s favorite part!)  than it does to make the dough, I swear!  If you don’t have a food processor, use your fingers and get to work.  If that sounds too intimidating, then you can always buy the boxed dough in the freezer section!

roll it out, yo

Roll out the dough so the edges overlap a 9″ pie pan.  This is rustic, so it’s ok if it’s not perfect, in fact, even better if it looks like your 5 year old nephew slapped this together.

rustically imperfect!

Next let’s deal with the mozzarella.  It’s a wet cheese, so I like to wring it out in paper towels, slice it, and place it on paper towels to further help it dry.  No one likes a wet pie.

tedious but necessary!

Once your tomato slices are cooled, the galette crust is sorted and your cheese is sufficiently dry, it’s time build the galette.  Start with a layer of cheese on the bottom, you can make this as thick or thin as you like!  Next, place the tomatoes.  I made a pretty starburst pattern with mine.

almost too pretty to eat…

Next, fold the overlapped dough back over the tomatoes, brush the dough with egg wash, and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Serve hot or at room temperature and garnish with a drizzle of reduced balsamic and fresh torn basil.  We ate ours at room temp to give everything a chance to set and meld.  The flavors are incredible!  Roasting the tomatoes really brings out the sugars and gives a caramelized flavor.

yummmmmmm

Heirloom Tomato Caprese Galette