Deep Dish Veggie Tart

We shared with you some of the recipes we've been lusting over last Friday. For dinner yesterday evening, we finally got a chance to knock one of those items off the to-make list: the Lasagna Tart from 101 Cookbooks.

But since we rarely make recipes exactly as they appear online or in books, we changed it up a bit. What resulted was more of a veggie deep dish pizza than a lasagna tart. But that's OK -- even better than OK. I'm thinking some of you guys and gals who recently attended the Health Living Summit in Chicago might be feeling a little nostalgic. You may want to relive last weekend's events by making this healthy deep dish for dinner . . . tonight.

Am I right?


DEEP DISH VEGGIE TART

What you'll need . . . for the tart crust:
(original recipe is Clotilde's Easy Olive Oil Tart Dough)

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dill (or other dried herbs)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup cold water

What you'll need . . . for the filling:
(again, inspired by 101 Cookbooks)

• 2 medium zucchini, sliced into thin "coins"
• 1/2 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1-1/2 cups Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1 14-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes

Method . . .
(don't let these EASY 20 steps scare you off!)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a tart pan and set aside.
2. Toss the zucchini coins with 1 teaspoon of salt in a dish to extract some of the moisture. Set aside while you prepare your crust.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt, and herbs. Add in the oil and water. Mix with a fork . . . and then give in and use your hands. The dough will be slightly sticky. You may add more water, if necessary.
4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough so it'll fit your tart pan. We make ours about an inch in diameter larger. Quick rolls are best, you don't want to handle the dough too much.
5. Very carefully transfer the tart dough to the pan. Fold over the excess dough to make the crust thicker. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in your refrigerator for half an hour to an hour.
6. Make your sauce: In a food processor, combine the garlic, canned tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt, olive oil, and red pepper flakes. Stephen also added a pinch of cayenne for good measure. Heat over medium-low heat on stove to warm and let flavors mingle. However, you don't want the sauce scalding hot when you put it in the crust. Warm is the key word here.
7. Prick the bottom of your tart crust with a fork a couple times. Bake on the middle oven rack for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool (I waited 20 minutes).
8. Lower your oven temperature to 350 degrees.
9. Then let the layering begin!
10. Start with 1/2 of your cheese on the bottom.
11. Then 1/2 of your sauce. (A spatula helps spread.)
12. Then pile your zucchini coins in a circular pattern (again, using 1/2 of them -- see photo above).
13. Then add all the black beans.
14. Then another layer of cheese. This time, only add about 2/3 of what is left.
15. Then another layer of zucchini.
16. Then the rest of your cheese.
17. Then the rest of your sauce to top it all off.
18. Smush your ingredients just so -- you don't want them toppling over the top of the tart pan.
19. Get out a rimmed baking sheet -- you don't want juices wandering to the bottom of your oven -- and place your tart pan on it. Bake for 40 minutes.
20. Let cool before serving (10 minutes or so).

Despite how long this recipe is, you go from this unbaked wonder . . .


To THIS beautiful deep disher in no time at all!


Have you ever made a recipe that didn't turn out exactly as you thought it would -- but you loved it anyway? This happens to us ALL the time. It's how a lot of our favorite meals are made. And that's what I love about the experimentation aspect of cooking and baking . . . even when we make the same recipe, use the same ingredients, etc. -- there's never a guarantee that it will come out the same way twice!

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