Summer Tomato Galette

Hello and welcome to Sunday Supper on Djalali Cooks! Alex and I enjoyed a few days away last week; a respite from cooking and cleaning, enjoying the beautiful views at Lake Oconee. Today, I am back with an easy Summer Tomato Galette. I love galettes because they’re rustic pies that even an unlucky baker like me can make with success. When it comes to baking, rustic equals imperfect, in terms of looks. We still want dry bottoms and light, flaky crust, but we can get away with uneven shapes and edges. This tomato pie is so flavorful and savory, we ate the whole thing over the course of the day – it’s that good! Let’s get right to it.

The Dough

This dough comes together really easily. We will use a food processor to bring it together but you can do it by hand too. Cut the 10 tablespoons of butter into roughly 1/2-inch pieces and put the cut pieces back in the refrigerator. I use a small cutting board to cut the butter, then just place the whole cutting board in the fridge to keep the cut pieces separated.

In the food processor, pulse flour and salt 2-3 times just to fully incorporate the salt into the flour. Then add the butter pieces to the flour and pulse about 10 times, until it reaches a sandy texture.

Transfer the butter and flour mixture to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over the flour/butter mixture. Use a silicone spatula to mix and press the mixture into a dough. Add more water, half a tablespoon at a time if it’s not holding together well. I used 6.5 tablespoons in total. I probably should have gone with 7 tablespoons. When it came time to roll, as you will see, I had some cracking around the edges; indicating I didn’t have enough water in there to hold it all together smoothly.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and form it into a disc. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. It can stay in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for one month.

Tomatoes

You want to use ripe tomatoes for this galette. I have two varieties from my garden: Lemon Boys and Cherokee Purples. This original recipe from America’s Test Kitchen calls for 1.5 pounds of mixed tomatoes. This bunch is about 1.8 pounds, but I will have a few bruises to trim off and once the cores are removed, I will be close to 1.5 pounds, but I still might not have enough room for all the tomato slices. Which is totally fine, I can snack on the leftover slices!

Slice the tomatoes about 1/4-inch thick. We will let the tomatoes give up some of their juice but salting them and letting them sit for 30 minutes. I am doing this in the colander of my salad spinner, which I will use to spin off the remaining juices after the 30 minutes. Sprinkle on the salt and gently lift up the top layers of tomatoes and salt the bottom ones too. Let these sit in the colander, in the sink for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place an oven rack on the lower-middle position.

For the Summer Tomato Galette filling, we will mix the tomatoes with olive oil, a thinly sliced shallot, minced garlic, more salt, pepper, and fresh thyme. After the 30 minutes in the salt, either gently shake off the excess juice, or spin the tomatoes in your salad spinner and transfer the tomatoes to a mixing bowl. Bring the galette dough out of the fridge and let it warm up for about 10 minutes, while we dress the tomatoes.

Add the salt, olive oil, shallot, garlic, pepper and thyme to the tomatoes and very gently toss to coat and incorporate everything.

Building the Galette

Line a rimmed sheet tray with a piece of parchment. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about a 12-inch circle. Then transfer the rolled out dough to the parchment-lined sheet tray.

Spread 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard on the dough, leaving a 1.5-inch border. Then, top the Dijon with the grated Gruyere cheese.

You can see that my dough is totally not a circle and the edges are the opposite of smooth. This is OK! As long as you leave enough border to fold over the tomato filling, it’s going to be fine. Now, use your hands to shingle the individual tomato slices in a circular pattern over the Gruyere cheese.

Using your hands will help ensure that as much juice as possible is left behind. Fish out any remaining shallot slices and arrange them on top. Then sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of grated Parmesan.

Then fold the edges over the tomatoes. To keep it mostly circular, overlap the folds every couple of inches; lightly press the folds to close the pleats. See how imperfect my galette looks? It is very rustic. Brush the dough with a beaten egg. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the crust is golden.

While mine was baking, about halfway through, I started to get very worried about how much liquid was coming out of the galette. I let it go for 50 minutes total, hoping it was not going to be a soggy-bottom mess.

I am happy to report that despite a breach in the crust and the worrisome amount of liquid on the parchment during baking, the bottom was not at all soggy – in fact, it was crispy and perfectly baked.

Summer Tomato Galette

When it comes out of the oven, place the whole sheet pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then use a fish spatula to carefully slide the galette off the parchment-lined sheet pan onto the wire rack. And let cool on the wire rack for another 20 minutes.

Once cooled until just warm, sprinkle with fresh basil leaves, slice into wedges and serve.

Serve a wedge of this rustic Summer Tomato Galette with a fresh green salad and you have a wonderful summertime Sunday Supper. So flavorful and fresh tasting, a tomato pie is not unlike pizza, to be honest. The Dijon and cheese layer under the tomatoes definitely helps keep that bottom from getting soggy, so don’t skip that part. The crust is buttery and flaky, tender and moist. I am only sorry I didn’t make two!

Thank you all so much for joining me today! In case you missed it, on Friday I posted my first cooking video on YouTube, check it out if you haven’t yet. And for the post that goes along with the video, check out Djalali Cooks with Mugnaini. Take care and be well, everyone. xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Summer Tomato Galette

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Dinner, Main Course, Brunch, Appetizer – American

By America's Test Kitchen – Serves: 4-8

Prep Time: 45 Minutes + 1 Hour chilling time and 20 Minutes cooling time – Cooking Time: 45-50 Minutes – Total Time: 2.75 Hours

Buttery, flaky crust envelopes a layer of Gruyere cheese, topped with ripe summer tomatoes dressed with shallot and thyme. Finish with fresh basil.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups (7½ ounces) All-purpose Flour
• 4 tsp. Kosher Salt, divided
• 10 tbsp. Unsalted Butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
• 6 - 7 tbsp. Ice Water
• 1.5 lbs. Mixed Tomatoes, cored and sliced ¼ inch thick
• 1 Shallot, sliced thin
• 2 tbsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. minced Fresh Thyme
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• ¼ tsp. Black Pepper
• 2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
• 3 oz. Gruyère Cheese, shredded (¾ cup)
• 2 tbsp. grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp. chopped Fresh Basil, or several small basil leaves

Instructions

Galette Dough

1

Process flour and 1 teaspoon Kosher salt in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds.

2

Scatter butter over top and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses.

3

Transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons ice water over flour mixture. Using rubber spatula, stir and press dough until it sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if dough doesn't come together.

4

Turn out dough onto lightly floured counter, form into 4-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Wrapped dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.)

Tomatoes

5

Toss tomatoes and 2 tsp. Kosher salt together in second large bowl. Transfer tomatoes to colander and set colander in sink. Let tomatoes drain for 30 minutes.

6

Meanwhile: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Let chilled dough sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes, before rolling.

7

Shake colander well (or spin in salad spinner) to rid tomatoes of excess juice. Combine tomatoes, shallot, oil, thyme, garlic, pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon Kosher salt in a bowl and set aside.

Build Galette

8

Roll dough into 12-inch circle on lightly floured surface, then transfer to prepared sheet (dough may run up lip of sheet slightly; this is OK).

9

Spread mustard over dough, leaving 1.5-inch border. Sprinkle Gruyère in even layer over mustard.

10

Shingle tomatoes and shallot on top of Gruyère in concentric circles, keeping within 1.5-inch border. Sprinkle Parmesan over tomato mixture.

11

Carefully grasp 1 edge of dough and fold up about 1 inch over filling. Repeat around circumference of tart, overlapping dough every 2 inches, gently pinching pleated dough to secure. Brush folded dough with egg (you won't need it all).

12

Bake until crust is golden brown and tomatoes are bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes.

13

Transfer sheet to wire rack and let galette cool for 10 minutes.

14

Using metal spatula, loosen galette from parchment and carefully slide onto wire rack; let cool until just warm, about 20 minutes.

15

Sprinkle with basil. Cut into wedges and serve.