Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Tart

I had been eying this recipe from Deborah Madison's, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and decided to make it when I had company over this weekend. The flavor of the filling is nice. It tastes like it was made with love and would make a wonderful pasta sauce on its own if some red wine were added. The actual tart is reminiscent of a red jammy old fashioned pizza pie, minus the cheese. It would probably also be great with smoked mozzarella or thin slices of Romano on top.


















Ingredients

Tart Dough
2 t active dry yeast
1/2 t sugar
1/2 cup warm water
3 T olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 t salt
1.75 cups flour, as needed

Tart Filling
2 red onions, finely diced
3 T olive oil, plus extra for glazing crust
1.5 lbs ripe roma tomatoes
3 large red bell peppers
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 t saffron threads
salt and fresh pepper to taste
2 T chopped fresh basil
16 kalamata olives

Directions

Make the dough first!
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water in a bowl and let stand 10 minutes. Add the oil, egg and salt, then stir in the flour. When the dough is too stiff to work with a spoon, turn it onto the counter and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Add more flour if necessary to keep it from sticking. Set the dough in an oiled bowl, turn it over to coat, cover with a towel, and let rise in a window until doubled in bulk, 45 minutes to an hour. Turn the dough out and roll into a thin circle and use it to line a 10" tart pan.

Filling
Cook the onions in the oil over medium heat until soft, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the onion is cooking, half and seed the bell peppers. Roast them in the oven for about 10 minutes on broil until peppers are soft and skin is shiny. Set aside one pepper for topping and finely dice the rest. Peel and seed the tomatoes and finely chop those as well. Add the garlic, tomatoes and peppers to the onions. Crumble in the saffron threads and anise and season with salt and pepper. Cook mixture for 30 more minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture will be quite thick. Taste for proper seasoning and add basil at the end of cooking.

Tart
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Add filling to the tart pan. Cut the reserved bell pepper into narrow strips and decorate top with a lattice pattern. Place the olives in the spaces formed by the peppers. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the tart from the tart pan and brush the crust with olive oil. Serve warm with a nice salad.

*Make sure to keep an eye on your tart in the oven. I left mine in too long and I feel the crust was a little dry because of it.