This zucchini tart can be a stand alone dinner with a salad or soup. Or a side dish taking the place of a vegetable and starch along with roasted chicken. Rustic in nature, it needs little fuss. It's not my most beautiful tart but it is a luscious one.
The filling is a blend of ricotta, eggs and mushrooms. (I used low-fat ricotta. Kowalski's has Crystal Farms ricotta (all varieties) on sale for $2.49. I added Italian seasoning but you can certainly play with adding thyme or basil or oregano. A squeeze of lemon wouldn't hurt.
The pastry dough can be your favorite or store-bought. It's all about the filling and the vegetables. The zucchini is the star - featured prominently on the top. But the sauteed mushrooms in the filling create a nice earthy surprise when the tart is sliced. Tomatoes, leeks and onions are other vegetables that would work.
Zucchini Rustic Tart Recipe - serves 4
- 1 box of favorite mushrooms (12-16 oz)
- 3 small zucchini
- 2 tbl olive oil
- pinch of salt
- favorite pie dough recipe
- 1 14-16 oz carton of ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbl Italian seasoning
Zucchini Rustic Tart Preparation
- Prepare 9-inch pie pan. Roll your pie dough into 9-11 circle and lay it in the pie pan. You want it to lay on the bottom and come up on the sides. It can overlap or fall short here and there. It's rustic! Let the dough crimple and peek out here and there.
- In a medium skillet, heat 1 tbl of olive oil, saute your mushrooms until they soften. Remove mushrooms and heat the additional 1 tbl of oil and saute your zucchini - again just until they soften. Don't let them go limp. Optional: You can always add a pinch of salt to these.
- Blend your ricotta, eggs and Italian seasoning with a mixer. When smooth, stir in your mushrooms.
- Pour into prepared pie pan. Smooth the top a bit. Lay your zucchini on top in a circular pattern.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for one hour - until the filling puffs up. Let cool for ten minutes and serve.
If you have additional sauteed vegetables left over, stir them into scrambled eggs the next morning.
All my ingredients came from Kowalski's Market. As mentioned the ricotta was on sale as were their brown eggs. The mushrooms (I used baby bellas) were on sale for 2 for $5.00. The zucchinis were baby-sized which makes for a more tender and sweeter vegetable.
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