Cherry tomato tarte tatin

Tarte tatin is a French recipe, discovered or created by accident.I read the story about it here. Caramelized fruit is layered at the base and covered with a pastry dough and baked and served upside down. I have made the savory version of the same, with ready made pastry dough. It is a very quick snack which I made for my kid when he returned from school. Well, it does require about 30 minutes of baking time....and more preparation if you make the pastry dough from scratch. As, I used the ready made shortcrust pastry found in the frozen section of the supermarket, I will post the recipe of short crust pastry some other time. 

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet of frozen shortcrust pastry (thawed at room temperature)
• 150 gms of cherry/grape tomatoes
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion(optional)
• 1 tsp dried red chili flakes
• salt and pepper
• A few fresh basil leaves for garnish

Recipe:

• Take out the shortcrust pastry sheet, while it is frozen and keep it aside to thaw. (Mine broke, however I kept the pieces and joined them when the pastry thawed completely)
• Heat olive oil in a pan. Add chopped garlic. Let the garlic sizzle and flavor the oil for about a minute or two.

• Add the tomatoes, and stir fry them at high heat for a minute.

• Add, red chili flakes.

• And salt and pepper.

• Pour the tomatoes/garlic/olive oil mix in a baking pan. I used a cheese cake pan with removable sides and bottom. You can use any square/round pan or tart pan.

• I realised that there seemed to be a gap in between tomatoes, so I chopped a red onion and sauteed it in the same pan.

• I added the sauteed onion, to the gaps in-between the tomatoes evenly. If your baking tray is of smaller size, you can skip adding the onions.

• Cover the tomatoes and onion mix with the thawed pastry dough. Trim it evenly. I just folded the sides.

• Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, till the pastry is golden brown.
• Turn off the oven, and let it sit in there, for about 5 minutes.

• Put a serving plate over the tray, and invert the tart in it.
• Garnish with fresh basil leaves and more freshly ground pepper, if needed.
• Serve hot. Yumm!!!  

Quantity:

• 1-2 servings

Notes:

• You can use yellow and red tomatoes for a pretty presentation.
• You can use other herbs like rosemary or parsley to garnish the tart.
• You can use regular tomatoes, too. Cut them in round slices and arrange them on the bottom of the pan.
• You can use puff pastry instead of shortcrust pastry.