Tarte au fromage de Banon

( Goat’s cheese, tomato and basil tart )

When my sister and I were young, we spent our summer holidays at my grandparents’ house in Ongles, a tiny Provençal village surrounded by fields of lavender, wild thyme and sunflowers. Every weekend they took us to Banon, a small township famous worldwide for its traditional specialties, including a donkey sausage and the very well renowned Banon goat’s cheese, a small circular cheese made of raw goat’s milk, wrapped in chestnut leaves. This tart reminds me of those happy summer weekends, when we would huddle under the yellow awning of the local café to escape the scorching heat, sipping on a refreshing orgeat syrup, hungrily scoffing down a cold tartelette de Banon. I love this tart for the fact that it is so representative of Provençal cooking: simple, almost rustic and made with locally sourced ingredients.

Serves 6–8

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) cold Puff Pastry, 5 single turns

2 roma (plum) tomatoes, very thinly sliced

10 black olives

180 g (6¼ oz) Banon goat’s cheese, or other fresh goat’s cheese, crumbled

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Sauce

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

400 g (14 oz) cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

10 large basil leaves, plus extra, to serve

fine salt, to taste

L You will need a 25 cm (10 in) ring tin or tart tin with a removable base. Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured work surface until 5 mm (¼ in) thick. Remember to keep moving the dough and dusting with extra flour when necessary so that it doesn’t stick to your work surface. Line the base and side of the tin with the pastry. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

L Meanwhile, to make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium–high heat. As soon as the oil begins to smoke, add the onion, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until the onion is golden. Add the tomatoes, garlic, thyme and pepper, then cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until thickened and reduced. Towards the end of cooking, tear the basil leaves into the sauce and season to taste with salt. Remove from the heat, cover with a cloth and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

L Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Remove the tin from the fridge and line the tart shell with foil, making sure the side of the shell is covered, then fill to the top with uncooked rice or baking beads. Blind bake for 20 minutes, or until the base is golden. Remove the rice and foil and set aside until cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F).

L Spread the cooled sauce over the base of the tart shell. Make sure your sauce is cool, as a warm sauce will soften the thin layers of puff pastry, resulting in a soggy base. Place the sliced tomatoes over the top, arranging them in slightly overlapping concentric circles, then scatter over the olives and goat’s cheese. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes, then scatter with the extra basil leaves and serve warm. If you prefer to serve it cold (my personal favourite) as a mid-afternoon treat or for dinner, refrigerate until needed and only garnish with the basil when you are ready to serve.

tip

The thyme and basil will take a while to infuse the sauce properly, so this tart will taste even better after a few days. Simply reheat it in a 180°C (350°F) oven for 5 minutes.