I never can resist a pun – last year I paid $91 for a t-shirt because it had a vegetable pun on it. Yup, I am a sucker for a pun. But the title here, play on words though it may be, is no joke. These tarts, galettes, or whatever you want to call them, are savory and so good. I can only take a little credit, since they borrow heavily from other sources, and I encourage you to riff still further on their basic elements.
The starting point was this post on My Name is Yeh (congrats on the new book, by the way!). That everything bagel topping, I started dreaming about putting it on, well, everything. Except, apparently, pie crust. I envisioned a crust that was somewhere between a thin-crust pizza and a cracker, so I turned to a standby recipe that I’ve used plenty of times in the past, this whole wheat yeasted olive oil pastry from the NY Times. To make a more substantial dinner, I filled it with sauteed spinach, FINALLY delicious heirloom tomatoes, and a liberal sprinkling of Gruyere. There’s something really amazing about the garlic-onion-sesame that’s just bang-on with the slight funk of the cheese, and I couldn’t be more proud of these tarts if I’d thought of them myself!
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 medium onion, sliced thin
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 12 ounces baby spinach
- 4 medium tomatoes
- 4 ounces grated Gruyere cheese, about ¾ cup
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tsp dried minced garlic
- 2 tsp dried minced onion
- 1 Tbs poppy seeds
- 1 Tbs sesame seeds
- ¼ tsp table salt
- Make the dough, about an hour and half before you want to eat.
- Stir together the dry ingredients. Stir in the oil and egg, plus about half a cup of warm water. Using the dough hook of a stand mixer or your hands, knead the dough until it comes together in a smooth ball. It's not necessary to work it too long. Place dough in a clean, oiled bowl, cover with plastic and leave to rise until doubled, about an hour.
- While the dough rises, heat the tablespoon of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach, a handful at a time, letting it cook down and release its liquid.
- Slice the tomatoes (tip: slice from the bottom of the tomato for slices that hold together the best) and place the slices on a couple of paper towels to absorb some of their liquid.
- Mix together all the topping ingredients in a small bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- When dough has doubled in bulk, divide it in half; re-cover the half you're not working with while you form the first galette.
- Roll out the dough into a circle about 10 inches across. It should be quite thin, about an eighth of an inch.
- Place the dough circle on a piece of parchment paper. Brush the surface of the dough with the beaten egg to help keep the bottom from getting soggy.
- Place half the spinach in a thin layer over the dough, leaving a generous inch uncovered at the edge. Lay slices of tomato on top of the spinach, and then sprinkle with half the cheese.
- Fold the edges of the dough over the toppings, making the prettiest folds you can. Brush the crust with egg wash, and sprinkle the topping mixture generously over the dough.
- Repeat the whole process with the second half of the dough.
- Carefully slide the galettes on their paper onto a large baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and the cheese is beginning to crisp on top.
- Let rest for 5 minutes on a cooling rack before slicing.
