I’m taking a break from my Peach Party today for French Fridays with Dorie. I am doing things a little out of order today…
Instead of sharing this week’s recipe (which I haven’t made yet because of all those peaches), I am writing about last week’s recipe and one from August that I am finally catching up on.
First, let’s talk about Eggplant “Tartine” with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cucumbers. The word tartine is in quotes because eggplant is standing in for the traditional bread of an open-faced sandwich. To serve, roasted slices of eggplant are topped with a variety of veggies that have been tossed with a simple vinaigrette. Dorie recommends garnishing with very thin slices of cucumber, but I embraced the cucumber (because I had some fresh from the garden) and served nice, thick slices.
Overall, we liked this. I enjoyed the blending of flavors and textures very much. My husband liked certain bites better than others. For example, he didn’t think the olives went well with the diced celery and onion, but he did like the olives with the tomato and eggplant.
This is meant to be served as a starter, but I served larger portions to turn it into our main dish. While I enjoyed the “tartine”, I do think it would be better served in smaller portions as a starter. I kind of got tired of the flavors before I was finished.
Next, let’s talk about the Tomato-Cheese Tartlets. I waited to make these until our garden tomatoes were ripe. It was Worth. The. Wait. These little tarts were fabulous!
These are very easy to make. Puff pastry dough is cut into rounds and baked under a baking sheet to keep them flat. Spread with either olive tapenade or pesto, then top with slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella. I chose to warm mine in the oven for a few minutes, and then they were seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil and Trader Joe’s Balsamic Glaze. Finally, they were garnished with shredded basil.
I made half of these with olive tapenade and half with pesto. Both were delicious, but we gave a slight edge to the pesto ones. You can’t go wrong either way!
These tartlets are a real winner and I will be making these every tomato season!
If you are interested in trying these recipes, you can find them in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book Around My French Table.
From Scratch 
Great catch up – we liked the appetizer size of the “tartines” a lot. I can see they’d be a bit much as a main. The tartlets were a hit, too, even though I was initially skeptical about crushing the life out of the puff pastry.