Sam's Kitchen

The beautiful and wholesome cherry tomato and filo tart I baked to treat my savoury loving Valentine this Valentine’s day.
It was a good way to use up all those cherry tomatoes we harvested from our veggie patch. There might be few more tomato recipes coming in near future since my tomatoes decided to ripen all at once!

I have made this tart several times and every time I make it I tweak it here and there by using different herbs and seasonings.  If you are a lemon lover, grate a little bit of lemon zest into the cheese mixture. Swapping feta for goats feta will add more depth to the flavour. Also, I like adding few slices of smoked salmon and garnish it with caper berries just prior serving it.
Filo pastry can be a little tricky to work with, so don’t stress over torn pieces, they are easily covered by the following sheet.
In the recipe, I’m calling to use 200g feta cheese, but less is fine – I had to trade some of my feta for 30 seconds of peace while my munchkin was devouring it. The sacrifices we make!
The tart still tasted fabulous sans the missing piece of feta.

Ingredients

6-8 filo sheets
3 tbsp olive oil

1 punnet cherry tomatoes halved
1 tsp salt

1 shallot, finely diced
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
300 g ricotta cheese
200 feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs
1/4 tsp lemon zest ( optional )
Handful fresh basil, finely chopped
Handful fresh chives, finely chopped
Ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
   Prepare a rectangular 13x36cm tart pan with removable base.
2. Place halved cherry tomatoes into a colander and toss with salt. Set aside to drain for 30-45 min.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and onion and saute over a medium heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
4. In a bowl mix ricotta cheese, feta cheese, eggs, lemon zest and herbs, then add sauteed onion and garlic and mix again. Season with ground black pepper to taste, add a pinch of salt if desired.
5. Brush filo sheets with oil, stacking them one on top of another to create layers.
6. Lightly grease the tart pan with oil and carefully move the stack of filo sheets into the pan oiled side down.
7. Fold overlapping edges into the pan.
8. Pour cheese mixture in and arrange tomatoes on top facing cut side up.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 30 min or till lightly golden and middle is set. Enjoy warm or cold.