We had our semi-annual dinner with Linda and David on Saturday.  It’s always a really fun time – and there is always so much food it’s ridiculous.  They’re under the impression we like to eat, and they really like to eat, so the food just keeps coming!

One fun thing Linda made was a Rustic Summer Squash Tart.  She cut the recipe out of a Woman’s Day magazine a couple of years ago and decided we were just the folks to try it out on.

I’m glad she did.

It was really good!  The photo above  is from the magazine.  The actual recipe makes a single large tart.  Linda served hers as an appetizer, so she made it thinner and wider.  Her version was a lot easier to eat standing!

I decided to make two individual tarts for our dinner tonight.  It also calls for a refrigerated pie crust.  Naturally, I had to make my own, because…  well… they’re so easy to make and they taste so much better.

I followed the concept, but tweaked the filling a bit to use up some things in the refrigerator.

Rustic Summer Squash Tart Recipe

By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman’s Day | August 1, 2008

Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Recipe Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb mixed summer squash (zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan), cut in 1/4-in. rounds
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or marjoram, plus sprigs for garnish
  • 1 tsp chopped garlic
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 refrigerated pie crust (from a 15-oz. box)
  • 4 oz Roquefort cheese, Gorgonzola or other good-quality blue cheese
  • 1 roasted yellow or red pepper (freshly roasted or from a jar), cut in strips
  • 1 large plum tomato, sliced, seeds removed
  • 1 large egg, beaten

Recipe Preparation

  1. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add squash and shallots and cook, turning pieces as they start to color, 7 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat; stir in thyme, garlic and pepper to taste. Cool to room temperature.
  2. Heat oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; unroll or unfold pie crust on the parchment. With a rolling pin, roll crust to a 13-in. round. Crumble half the cheese over crust to within 2 in. of edge. Arrange squash mixture, pepper strips and tomato slices on cheese; fold edge of the crust over filling and brush crust with egg.
  3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until pastry is golden. Slide tart, still on parchment, onto a wire rack. Crumble remaining cheese over top. Let cool before serving.

For the filling, I used 2 pattypan squash, 1 zucchini, fresh spinach, and an andouille sausage that I sliced into rings and sauteed – and the other stuff listed.

I made my basic food-processor pie crust and put the remaining half in the freezer for another day.

And while I was relaxing, waiting for the tarts to cook, Victor moved into the kitchen and made Tomato Salad from some of our bounty of tomatoes from the garden!

Amounts are going to be determined by how many tomatoes you have.  Don’t worry.  Just make it.  Ya can’t screw it up!

Tomato Salad

  • Fresh tomatoes, sliced
  • red onion, sliced
  • minced garlic
  • red wine vinegar
  • olive oil
  • fresh basil
  • salt and pepper

Mix and refrigerate.

One of life’s great pleasures is to have some fresh crusty bread to sop up all of that lovely juice in the plate.  I didn’t make any today because we were having the tart with a crust, but I did make a batch of dough so we can sop tomorrow!

Perfect.