August Recipes: Tomato, Ricotta & Pesto Tart

Felicity Vincent
Aug 2, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Mar 18

Use stale bread to create an easy crispy "pastry" case for this tomato tart recipe

Fresh pesto with creamy ricotta, roasted tomatoes and crispy pastry base. An easy summery lunch recipe.

This summery tart is perfect for lunches and gatherings. A new fun way to use up stale leftover bread and transform it into a delicious pastry case. It's the perfect crispy texture to go with creamy ricotta, pesto and slow roasted tomatoes.

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Ingredients (serves 4):

Basil pesto recipe:

15g pine nuts
25g basil leaves
25g parmesan
55g EVOO
1 garlic clove (approximately 3g)
S&p

Tomato, ricotta and pesto tart recipe:

500g fresh tomatoes
250g ricotta
200g stale bread
2 Tbs EVOO

Method:

How to make basil pesto:

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 2 minutes on medium heat, stirring them often, until they have started to brown. Then transfer them into the food processor.
Peel the garlic clove; and pick the basil leaves off their stalks.
Transfer all the ingredients into the food processor.
Blitz the pesto until smooth, add more oil if necessary. Taste it to make sure it doesn't need any more salt.

How to make the bread "pastry" case:

Preheat the oven at 200°C.
Find an oven proof dish which is slightly smaller than your pastry tin (tart case) and therefore can fit inside it. The heavier this dish is, the better. A dutch oven or cast iron pan for instance is ideal, or a cake tin weighed down with baking beans. But whatever fits will do, weighing it down just means giving the slices of bread the best chance of sticking together.
Cut the stale bread into very thin slices.
Line the tart case with baking parchment. Drizzle 1 Tbs EVOO over the paper and spread evenly with your fingers, including all over the sides. Layer the bread slices over the paper, making sure to lean some slices along the sides to create a crust and overlap each slice by at least a third.
Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the bread. Scrunch up a second sheet of baking parchment, run cold water over it then lay it out over the bread slices. Press down on them with with the chosen ovenproof dish.
Leave the oven proof dish in the case and place in the oven for 30 minutes. The edges should have started to brown.
Take the tart out of the oven, remove the oven proof dish and top baking parchment carefully.
In a bowl, mix the ricotta with 3/4s of the pesto.
Spoon the ricotta pesto mix into the tart case and spread it evenly across the base.
Thinly slice the tomatoes and sprinkle a bit of salt over them.
Layer the tomato slices over the ricotta. Then place the tart back into the oven for 40 minutes.
Remove the tart from the oven, drizzle the remaining pesto over the top. Use the baking parchment to remove the tart from the tin and place on a serving dish.
Slice the tart and serve with a green salad.
Bon appétit!

More about this tomato recipe:

Recipe shortcuts:

You can of course use jarred pesto, but homemade is so much tastier and healthier I do recommend trying it.
Use shop bought pastry to replace the bread case.

Keys to success:

Overlap the bread slices properly to ensure the tart case binds together. Pressing them down with the wet baking parchment will also help with this.

Health benefits of tomatoes:

They're a good source of:

biotin which enables us to release energy from food and supports cell health;
vitamin C which supports bone and cell health, the immune system, as well as enabling wound healing;
vitamin A (carotenoids) which supports the immune system and contributes to eye and skin health.

Tomatoes get their beautiful red colour from pigments called carotenoids which are well known for the benefits to eye health. One of these carotenoid pigments, particularly prevalent in tomatoes, is lycopene which has many known benefits:

It has anti-cancer properties, and most notably reduces the chance of prostate cancer, the most common form of cancer in men;
It can inhibit oxidative damage caused by exercise and research found that drinking tomato juice will speed up recovery time after sport activities;
It is one of the best singlet oxygen scavenger which can cause diseases such Alzheimer's and Parkinson's;
It has been shown to protect the brain from stroke and slow down symptoms of dementia;
Along with beta-carotene (pigment), GABA (aminobutyric acid) and a mediterranean diet, it reduces blood pressure (of hypertensive individuals only) and the amount of blood LDL cholesterol, also known as bad cholesterol; therefore reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease;
Along with beta-carotene, it can protect the skin from UV damage and promote pro-collagen production which contributes to bouncy/youthful looking skin;
Finally, it potentially plays a role in reducing insulin resistance and therefore the development of diabetes mellitus.

Interestingly, cooking tomatoes breaks down cell walls making lycopene more readily available. On top of that, it's fat soluble meaning when served with a bit of extra virgin olive oil it is absorbed more easily by our intestine. Hence it is one of the benefits found in eating a Mediterranean diet (lots of plants including tomatoes, olive oil and fish).

Tomatoes contain other antioxidants which scavenge 'free radicals' and reduce oxidative stress, including flavonoids and ferulic acids. These all have anti-cancer properties.

Aside from other benefits mentioned above, vitamin C and beta-carotene also support the immune system.

Finally, tomato seeds contain a specific saponin called lycoperoside H, which is an anti-inflammatory leading to many health benefits including brain and heart health.

Mood Food - Happy:

Vitamin C - involved in converting dopamine to noradrenaline - low amounts of noradrenaline are associated with depression.

Lycopene and lycoperoside H - anti-inflammatory properties linked to brain health and lower risk of depression.

Hopefully this makes you excited to try this and many other tomato recipes during its season!

You can find lots of ideas on how to cook with tomatoes in my newsletter: https://felicityvincent.substack.com/

Full Video:

Cook along with this step-by-step video and learn how to make my tomato tart recipe.

Photos: