This is such a pretty tart where the humble tomato shines bright. If you are not growing your own tomatoes, try to source the best fragrant, ripe tomatoes.

This is a gorgeous tart and, in terms of cooking, is not much more than an assembly job. it is a perfect mid-week dinner, served with a big green salad or take for a casual picnic lunch with friends

If you prefer, a pizza base can be used instead of puff pastry. If using puff pastry, allow the tart to cool a little before serving.

Fragrant tomato tart

1 kg tomatoes (I used a mix of Roma, buffalo & cherry)
100g ricotta
1 garlic clove, crushed
50g parmesan cheese, freshly grated
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Caramelised onions (optional)
350 g ready-made puff pastry
Sea salt
Pepper
100g buffalo mozzarella or bocconcini, torn
Basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

Slice the tomatoes about 5mm. Make sure your tomatoes are finely sliced or they won’t slightly caramelise during cooking.

Mash the ricotta with a fork and add the garlic and parmesan & thyme leaves. Season.

Roll the pastry out to make 2 x 30cm circle (or rectangular, if you prefer). Place this on a lined baking tray.

Spread the ricotta mix over this, leaving a 2-3 cm border around the outside. If you are adding caramelised onions, add a scattering of these on top of the ricotta mix. Now place the tomatoes on the pastry, starting from the outside edge. Place them in overlapping circles. Keep in mind the tomatoes will shrink a little during the cooking. Scatter with torn mozzarella. Season the tomatoes generously with salt and pepper.

Cook for 15 minutes 220°C. Reduce the heat to 160°C & cook for a further 15 minutes. The tomatoes should be slightly caramelised. Scatter with basil leaves and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a final scattering of good quality sea salt (I prefer Murray river sea salt).

Variation: The addition of anchovies are really lovely.

Pizza bases could be used in lieu of puff pastry.

You could also make the base for my pissaldiere in the Relish Mama cookbook (recipes from a shared kitchen & the Relish Mama table) for maximum WOW factor.