Danielle Alvarez's tomato and olive tapenade tart

Name: Danielle Alvarez's tomato and olive tapenade tart
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 170g plain flour; ½ tbsp granulated sugar; ½ tsp salt; 130g cold butter, diced; 60-80ml ice-cold water

Danielle Alvarez

February 6, 2023

Tomato and olive tapenade tart.William Meppem

Time:2 hours +Serves:6

Making a galette at home needn’t be scary. Think just a few simple ingredients, mixed by hand and pastry rolled thin. The only real secret is keeping your butter and pastry cold. And it need not look perfect: I’m always amazed at the rustic beauty of galettes no matter the experience level of the cook. This version, with summery tomatoes and black olives, is a Provençal dream.

Ingredients

For the flaky pastry

170g plain flour
½ tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
130g cold butter, diced
60-80ml ice-cold water

For the topping

2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 onion, thinly sliced
70g semi-dried tomatoes
50g pitted black olives
1 garlic clove
1 sprig rosemary, leaves stripped from the stem
1 tsp honey
1 tsp white or red wine vinegar
1 tbsp plain flour
500g roma tomatoes
1 egg

Method

Step 1
Place the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir to combine.
Step 2
Add in the cold, diced butter and use your fingertips to reduce the butter pieces to the size of small grapes. Next, use your hands to flatten the chunks of butter by crushing them in between your palms, creating little sheets. Alternatively, you can dump everything onto your bench and press the butter down into the surface if that's easier.
Step 3
Make a well in the flour and butter mixture and pour in 60ml of the cold water and use your hands and a bench scraper to mix the water into the flour. If there are still lots of dry bits of dough and floury pieces, add another 20ml of water until the dough feels as if it will stick together without becoming sticky and wet.
Step 4
Knead the dough a few times to bring it together, then wrap in baking paper and foil and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but up to 48 hours. You can also freeze the dough and defrost it in the fridge overnight before using.
Step 5
Heat a sautée pan over low heat. Add olive oil and the onion and a pinch of salt and sautée until deeply caramelised (about 20 minutes).
Step 6
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the caramelised onion, dried tomatoes, black olives, garlic clove, rosemary leaves, honey and vinegar and pulse until uniform and there are no large lumps. Season with salt and black pepper and set aside.
Step 7
Preheat your oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional).
Step 8
On a well-floured bench, roll out your dough to about 3mm in thickness. Cut out a circle that's about 30cm in diameter and place it on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
Step 9
Sprinkle 1 tbsp of plain flour on the base of the galette. Top that with the tapenade, spreading it evenly across the base, leaving a 3-4cm border around the edge.
Step 10
Slice the tomatoes about ½ cm in thickness, then cover the olive tapenade with them in any sort of pattern you like. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
Step 11
Fold up the edges of the galette to form a crust. Again, a simple pleat, or whatever you can easily do, will suffice. Crack the egg into a bowl and add a teaspoon of water to make the egg wash. Brush the egg wash on the pastry edge and crack black pepper on top of the egg wash.
Step 12
Place the galette in the centre of the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 160C fan-forced (180C conventional). Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
Step 13
Allow the galette to cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.