Summer Vegetable Tart recipe

For all of you who have the usual home gardener's selection of zuccini, squash and tomatoes, here is a fairly simple and absolutely delicious vegetable tart. If you don't have this in your own garden, make sure you pick them up from a farmer's market, the flavor is totally lost with grocery store produce.

Ingredients:

Crust:
1.5 cups AP flour
1 tsp iodized salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter; cut into cubes, chilled
4 tbsp vegetable shortening; cut into cubes, chilled
approx. 4-5 tbsp ice water

Filling:
1 medium sized zuccini or squash
3-4 ripe hot house tomatoes
1/2 cup goatcheese
tbsp fresh rosemary; chopped fine
tbsp fresh thyme; coarsely chopped
two cloves garlic; minced

Process:
Place the flour and salt in a food processor and mix together with on/off pulses. Add the chilled butter and shortening and process until the chunks of butter and shortnening are a little bigger than "pea-size". Add the ice water 1 tbsp at a time until moist clumps begin to form. The butter and shortening should be pea-sized by the end of the process. Take the dough out of the processor and form into a loose ball, trying not to overwork it, and refrigerate for an hour.

Mix the goat cheese and rosemary together and refrigerate. Chop zuccini or squash and tomatoes into half wedges, mix with olive oil, garlic, and thyme and let stand at room temperature.

Take the dough out and roll it out to desired thickness, you should be able to see the flakes of shortening and butter (that's what's going to give your crust it's fantastic flakiness). Either use a paring knife and a steady hand, or a ring mold of some sort ranging about an inch and a half. Pop out 5-6 circles from the dough and lay inside of a tart pan (muffin pans can work just as well). Pre-bake the crusts at 350 until they just start to brown. While they're in the oven, lightly sautee the zuccini to pre-cook them. Take the crusts out, place a relatively thin layer of goat cheese on the bottom, the sauteed zuccini, and the raw tomatoes.

You can then place them back into the oven at 350, or place in the refrigerator and finish cooking later.
I can't stress enough, the freshness of the vegetables and herbs play the BIGGEST part of this dish. Yes, the melty, delicious goat cheese will be a nice layer of flavor, but the vegetables play the biggest roles. Let them be themselves, and they'll treat you just fine ;-)

It's hard to get my husband to be agreeable to anything without meat. But this sounds so good...how could he not like it! Thanks for sharing!!