Tomato basil goat cheese tart

What’s the line between a quiche and a tart? Pretty close, in this case; same flavors but without the same egg/cream ratio that lends a soufflé-like quality to the quiche. I have heaven’s own supply of little golden cherry tomatoes, so this appealed to me. I didn’t have quite enough goat cheese on hand, so I opted to use some Boursin for part of the recipe, which turned out well.

Tomato tart

Adapted from Lauren Chattman via Newsday

Ingredients

1¼ cups flour

8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup ice water

1½ cups cherry tomatoes, halved

8 ounces goat cheese

5.2 ounce package Boursin with garlic and herbs, or an equal amount of ricotta

2 large eggs

½ cup packed fresh basil

1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Combine flour, butter and salt in a food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add ice water and pulse until dough comes together. Press into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill at least two hours. (The recipe claimed you could make it up to three days ahead, but I haven’t tried it.)

Roll dough out into an 11-inch circle on a lightly floured board. Transfer to an 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Place dough in pan, pressing up the sides. Trim excess by running a rolling pin over the edges. Prick bottom of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. (Can be made a day ahead.)

Line tart with tin foil. Fill with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 425-degree oven. Remove foil and bake 5 minutes more until it starts to pick up color. Set on rack to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350.

Puree goat cheese, Boursin, eggs, basil and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Pour into cooled tart shell. Place tomato halves, cut-side up, on tart filling. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until filling is set.

Let tart cool slightly and then remove sides from pan.

Rating: Reasonably tasty; just don’t expect it to have a quiche consistency. Easy enough if you mix up the tart dough ahead. (And the filling could be mixed up in advance as well to further ease things.) It works as a main dish, side dish, or sliced into smaller slivers could work as an appetizer. It was fine warm and cold as leftovers. The consistency doesn't change, unlike when a quiche turns into more of a custard when chilled.

Don’t have any Boursin on hand? Here are a couple of recipes to make your own that I need to try out: One from Paula Deen (http://www.food.com/recipe/make-your-own-boursin-cheese-paula-deen-248495) and another  likely suspect that calls for garlic: http://www.thesaucysoutherner.com/homemade-boursin-style-cheese/