Provencal Vegetable and Goat Cheese Tart

Provencal Vegetable and Goat Cheese Tart is a lovely way to enjoy all the best summer produce with elegant French flair!  Perfect with French Onion Soup or Roasted Tomato Bisque on the side!

The inspiration behind this recipe:

Like almost everyone else, every trip we planned to take this year had to be canceled.  The drive we took to see our families in Wisconsin earlier this month was much-needed relief but it looks like that will be the extent of it.

Provence, France wasn’t on the itinerary this year but I have fond memories of visiting there a number of years ago.  If we can’t travel physically, we can certainly travel culinarily!

Layers of summer vegetables, fresh herbs and tangy goat cheese fill a buttery crust in this Provencal-inspired savory tart.  It’s the perfect way to enjoy a culinary getaway to sunny, beautiful southern France!

What is the difference between a tart and quiche?

Not a heck of a lot.  Basically:

• A tart can be sweet or savory.  Tarts are usually made in “special” pans with low sides that often have a removable bottom.
• A quiche is always savory and a regular pie pan works just fine for quiche.

If you don’t have a special tart pan, this can easily be made in a pie pan.

How to make Provencal Vegetable and Goat Cheese Tart:

• Gather up some beautiful summer produce!
  • Eggplant
  • Yellow squash
  • Zucchini
  • Red bell pepper
  • Fresh herbs such as basil.  Thyme would also be lovely!

• Gather up the ingredients for the buttery crust and make the crust first.
  • All-purpose flour
  • Unsalted butter
  • Salt
  • Ice water

• Place the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and process until nice and crumbly.
• Add JUST enough ice water to get the dough to bind.

• Press the dough into a prepared tart pan.
• Place a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil over the crust and fill it with pie weights, dried beans, rice or lentils.
• Bake until the crust is cooked through and lightly browned.  Set that aside to cool and work on the vegetables.

• Slice the vegetables as shown and place them on baking sheets as shown for roasting.  At this point, however, leave the tomatoes whole.  If you cut them in half at this point, you’ll lose much of the juice and end up with flat tomato halves.
• Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.

• Roast until the vegetables are just tender.  The pan with the shallot, yellow squash and zucchini will only take half as much time as the pan with the red bell pepper, eggplant and tomatoes.
• When the tomatoes have cooled, cut them in half.
• Cut the red bell peppers into 1/2-inch pieces.

• Then start layering!  Spread a layer of grated Parmesan cheese over the bottom first.  This will help to keep the crust from getting too soggy from the custard filling.
• Layer the vegetables, cheese and herbs any way you want but leave the tomatoes for the final layer.  I recommend  the layers be as follows:
  • Eggplant
  • Half the red bell pepper
  • A third of the goat cheese
  • A third of the sliced basil
  • Zucchini, yellow squash and shallot
  • A third of the goat cheese
  • A third of the sliced basil
  • The rest of the red bell pepper
  • The tomatoes (I preferred them cut side up)
  • The rest of the goat cheese
  • The rest of the basil

• Combine 1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half, two eggs and some salt and pepper.
• Pour that over the vegetables….

• Bake and voila!

• Let it cool a little before cutting the vegetable tart into wedges.

Beautiful!

This tart is a lovely way to use up leftover ratatouille!  Simply place the ratatouille in the blind-baked tart shell and proceed with the cheese and custard.  Bake as directed.

Serve this vegetable tart with:

• Arugula, Egg and Asparagus Salad with Creamy Lemon Vinaigrette
• French Lentil Salad
• Broccoli Gruyere Soup with Torn Garlic Croutons
• Cream of Asparagus and Leek Soup with Curry
• Cream of Green Vegetable Soup
• Very Veggie Gazpacho

More elegant tart recipes you’ll love!

• Butternut Squash, Leek and Gruyere Tart
• Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart with Thyme
• Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart with Herbed Ricotta
• Asparagus Prosciutto and Fontina Tortino
• Tomato Ricotta Tart
• Asparagus, Spring Onion and Fontina Tart
• Puff Pastry Vegetable Tart