Caramelized onion, cherry tomato and goat cheese tart; cherry tomato and tapenade tart with mascarpone

 This is a good way to use up some of the bowls of tiny tomatoes in late summer. Or early fall. Like when you bring in the last blast ahead of frost. And then it snows (????!) before the Ides of October.

Caramelized onion, tomato and goat cheese tart
Adapted from “The Savory Baker by America’s Test Kitchen as published in the Star Tribune Sunday Supper. It included a somewhat unusual method for caramelizing onions. Since I was making this to take to a gathering with friends, I decided this wasn’t the time to fool around and find out, so I opted for the lengthy but reliable method. Two hours later, really wishing I’d planned far enough ahead that I could have done the crockpot method. (Evangelizing on this method again.) Note that onions cook way, way down, so for a half cup of onions you’re probably going to want to start with 1½ pounds or more.  You can always freeze the extras. Or do what I did, and try the recipe again with the other half of the puff pastry box.

Ingredients
½ cup caramelized onions
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
6 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves plus sprigs for garnish
½ cup (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. On a very lightly floured board, roll out puff pastry to a 10-inch square. Brush outer ½ inch of pastry with water and then fold toward center, pressing to seal.

Spread caramelized onions over the area within the pastry border. Top with halved tomatoes. Sprinkle with thyme leaves. Tuck crumbled goat cheese in between the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until puffed and golden, about 24 minutes.

The recipe called for slicing it into four pieces to serve 4. I sliced it into 9 since I was counting it as an appetizer. You’d probably want to make two of these if you wanted to serve this as a main course to 4 people.

Rating: Best served warm, which we did the second time we made it. Fine enough at room temperature if you’re offering as a buffet appetizer, but really good when consumed immediately out of the oven. Truly hard to go wrong with this combo pack, and it looks pretty, too, especially with multiple colors of tomatoes. If you have lemon thyme, that’s a really nice addition. I'll definitely give this a spot in the summer recipe rotation. 

This batch got a little over brown; the recipe below reflects dialed-back suggested baking times.

We also tried this recipe with more of the little tomato excess. Actually, it's not really truly possible to have an excess of tomatoes in my opinion.It's not like zucchini.Or kale.

Tomato and tapenade tarts
From “The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking” by Joanna Farrow

Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
4 tablespoons olive tapenade, divided
1 ½ pounds cherry tomatoes, halved unless very small
½ cup mascarpone cheese

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out pastry and cut into 4 squares, or in 6-inch circles using a plate as a guide if you want to be fancy. Transfer to baking sheet. Score ½ inch from the edge with a sharp knife to make a rim.

Spread ½ tablespoon tapenade on each tart, making sure to keep it off the edges. Top with tomatoes, keeping them within the rim. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven. Dot with remaining tapenade and put a dollop of mascarpone in the middle of each tart. Season with pepper and bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Rating: It wasn't bad, but I really thought I'd like it a lot more than I actually did. We used purchased tapenade, and it's possible it didn't bring as much to the party as some do. It's a pretty fast fix, so I won't rule out making it again when I have my own tapenade made fresh. And when there are tomatoes back on the vines again. It's little green tomato time on the counters again. Oh, fall.