7 fresh or frozen filo pastry sheets, thawed
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cups grated Swiss cheese (recommended Emmenthal)
8 large ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
12 fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a large baking sheet, place 1 sheet
filo pastry and brush with melted butter, repeat, stacking them on top of each
other as you build your pie crust. You may want to stagger the sheets a little
bit to ensure that the baking sheet is well covered allowing a little bit of an
edge.
On the top layer, brush on the mustard.
Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the pastry to ensure even coverage. Lay the
tomato slices generously, all over, overlapping, as needed. Season with coarse
salt and ground black pepper. Sprinkle the thyme leaves on top.
Bake in the oven until the pastry is
crisped and browned at the edges, about 25 minutes.
Add another sprinkling of coarse salt,
and cut the tart into 8 squares. Garnish with fresh basil leaves. Delicious
when served hot, warm, or at room temperature*.
~Source: Chuck Hughes, Cooking Channel
Patti’s Notes:
I also used farm fresh tomatoes
and put the slices on paper towels (sprinkled with a little salt) to draw out
some moisture prior to assembling. I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper. I
used Stone Ground Dijon. I’m a cheese
lover but Swiss is not my favorite so I used half Swiss and half Shredded Four
Cheese Blend. I skipped the second round
of salt since I had salted the tomatoes from the get go.
*These were best right out of the
oven, not as good at room temp. Next
time I will serve them on my pizza stone to keep them warm for a longer
period of time.
Easy Meter:
Filo Dough is not my favorite
thing to work with. It is very fragile
and ALWAYS breaks apart. Since the
sheets are layered in this recipe it doesn’t really matter if they look like a
patchwork quilt. You won’t see the
seams.
Health-o-Meter: According to the
nutritional value on the box, 5 sheets of filo has 1 gram of fat and 2 grams of
sugar. There are 7 sheets in the recipe and Chuck says it “serves 8” so you can
do the math. It’s on the low end for a
carb product. The calories are in the cheesy
deliciousness.
Tomatoes on papertowels 'drying out' a little (30 minutes) prior to assembly.
7 sheets of buttered filo
A schmear of stone ground Dijon mustard
Say cheese!
All that lovin' ready for the oven.
M-M-Good!
