This is very easy to prepare and a great way to use up tomatoes. If you can’t find wonderful summer tomatoes, it really isn’t worth the effort. The key to this is the freshness of the ingredients.
There is one step that is very important, and it’s how you prepare the tomatoes. You need to follow this, or you will end up with a slimy mess.
To prepare your tomatoes, slice them 1/4 inch thick and lay onto paper towels, do one layer of tomatoes then add more paper towels and another layer of tomatoes, etc. They can rest there while you prepare everything else. This just absorbs some of the juice, so you get full flavor, without soft puff pastry.
This can easily be made vegan by using Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, which is surprisingly vegan, and subbing a non dairy Parmesan, such as Go Veggie.
Ingredients
1 package of Puff Pastry, thawed. This takes about 2 hours in the refrigerator.
3 medium sized Heirloom Tomatoes, sliced and prepared as described above.
2 Tbsp Olive Oil, with 1 clove Garlic, crushed.
Fresh Basil
Parmesan Cheese
1/4 tsp Salt, or to taste.
Black Pepper, freshly ground.
1 tsp Chili Flakes, or as desired.
Parchment Paper, cut to fit your rimmed baking pan. Slight overlap is totally fine.
1 tsp AP Flour
Preheat your oven to 375F. Put the oven rack on the center rung.
Begin by sprinkling about 1/2 of your AP Flour on the parchment paper. Lie your puff pastry onto the parchment paper, dust your rolling pin and gently roll out the pastry to the proper size, to match your pan.
Gently place the parchment paper with pastry onto your baking pan. Brush the pastry with 1/2 of your olive oil mixture.
Arrange half of your basil onto the pastry and arrange your tomatoes in one layer. It’s okay to overlap slightly if you have extra tomatoes. Add your salt, black pepper and chili flakes.
Add the rest of your basil and then drizzle the rest of the olive oil mixture on top and add the Parmesan cheese.
Bake following the package directions, but 375F for 30-35 minutes is usually good. Remove from oven, let it rest for 5 minutes and serve.
The Louisville Chef 