Monday, July 9, 2012

a trip to the market for Heirloom tomatoes, with a wonderful Chardonnay

We had a litre of goats milk in the fridge begging to be turned into fresh ricotta.  So with that in mind, we picked up a few things at the market that begged for ricotta.
Heirloom tomatoes are in season!  My favourite.  We're making a tomato tart for dinner, with ricotta and goats cheese.
We made the crust from scratch because we had the time this afternoon, but you can use a ready made shell to save a bunch of time.  To be honest, the crust was very fast and pretty easy, and tastes way better, so weigh the benefits carefully.  I found this tart and dough recipe on David Lebovitz's website, a career baker turned writer living the life in Paris.

To make the dough:
1 and 1/4 cups of flour
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons of cold water
125 g of chilled unsalted butter, cut into small squares
teaspoon of salt

Put the salt and flour in a bowl, and add the pieces of butter.  Using your hands, mix the butter with the flour breaking it down until the mixture resembles cornmeal.  Dig a well in the middle of the flour mixture.  In a small bowl beat the egg with 2 tablespoons of water.  Add the egg into the hole in the flour and knead the mixture until the dough holds together.  Roll it out until its big enough the cover the pie pan.  You can lift it into the pie pan by rolling the dough onto the rolling pin and lifting it there.  Squeeze the dough into the edges and sides.  You can also roll it flat and place it on a baking sheet if you prefer.

Filling:
Dijon mustard
Enough sliced tomatoes to cover the pie pan (2 or 3 sliced big ones should do, but I used cherry)
2 generous tablespoons of chopped herbs of your liking (I used basil chives and rosemary)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
sliced goats cheese for the top, 8 ounces should be good
enough ricotta to place across the bottom

Spread dijon mustard across the bottom of the pan to cover the dough.  Let this rest for a bit to dry out.  Crumbled ricotta on the bottom, and then fresh herbs, and then sliced tomatoes, and then sliced rounds of goats cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil, and place in the oven at 475 degrees for 30 minutes.



2010 Maison Roche de Bellene Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes, AOC Bourgogne $19.95 (coming to LCBO: Vintages this winter).
Here we found ourselves with the perfect occasion to drink a nice, fresh, and relatively unoaked Chardonnay. You can find many options around the world, (especially VQA Ontario), but nobody does it quite like Burgundy and/or Chablis. You want a chard that is fairly lean and racy, not buttery and round.  This one is from producer; Maison Roche de Bellene. Nicolas Potel is a winemaking legend from Beaune that continues to produce the most exciting Burgundy wines in all price point and crus, vintage after vintage at Domaine de Bellene.
This wine has beautiful aromas of fresh apple, peach, apricot, citrus with honey on toast. It has also got a little spiced cream thing going on in the nose. The palate is medium bodied with a nice satin texture, showing minerals and almost hazelnuts on the finish. This is a text book example of a great quality Burgundy Chardonnay. For under $20, this is a steal. Stock up this winter, unfortunately its released after tomato season.  We were too excited about it and had to share it with you today.  Tease.


If you're looking for something to drink right now, our friend Christopher McDonald brought over a great LCBO Vintages Substitution the weekend, it was released on Saturday, the JEAN-PIERRE ET MICHEL AUVIGUE SOLUTRÉ POUILLY-FUISSÉ 2010  VINTAGES 278960 | 750 mL bottle $23.95.  Give it a try.  


bon appetit.
dinner is served.

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