This looks stunning, a mass of lightly cooked slices of large, ripe tomatoes arranged concentrically like a French apple tart. They lie on a soft bed of gently stewed onion piquantly seasoned with salty anchovy in a pastry case made with crushed walnuts, rapeseed oil and spelt or plain flour. The dough ends up a bit like play-doh, so broken into chunks and pressed into the tart tin rather than rolled in the usual way. Serve it hot or warm.
Serves 4-6
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 40 min
50g walnuts pieces
200g spelt or plain flour plus a little extra
½ (half) tsp salt
8 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil
2 tbsp water
knob of butter
3 large onions, approx 750g in total
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Maldon salt
2 sprigs thyme
4 anchovies in oil
3 large tomatoes, approx 225g each
Heat the oven to 200C. Briefly blitz the walnuts or place in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. In a mixing bowl, use a fork to mix flour and walnuts, salt, rapeseed oil and water. Smear a 26cm tart or flan tin with a removable base with butter, dust with flour and shake out the excess. Quarter the pastry then cut off pieces, pressing it to cover the base and sides of the tin. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Trim, halve, peel and finely slice the onions. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a spacious, lidded sauté or frying pan and stir in the onion. Toss over a high heat for 2-3 minutes, sprinkle over the salt, add the thyme, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, giving the odd stir, until soft and juicy. Chop the anchovy and stir into the onion. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until completely tender and the anchovy disappeared. While the onion cooks, cut the cores out of the tomatoes in a pointed plug shape. Halve through the depth of the fruit and slice approx ½ (half) cm thick. Discard the thyme stalks and spread the onion over the tart base. Arrange overlapping tomato slices. Season with salt, black pepper and remaining oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes are lightly cooked rather than merely hot. Rest for 5 minutes then stand on a tin to remove the collar. Reheats well.