Dave and I have this conversation nearly once a week:
Me (whining, after baking all day): I’ve been cooking all day and I’m tired and I haven’t even stupid started dinner. Stupid stupid stupid.
Dave: Okay. We’ll order pizza.
Me: We can’t order pizza! I bought ingredients for dinner! If we don’t use them tonight, they’ll go to waste!
Once the week’s menu is set, it does not change.
But last week something went haywire, and I needed to come up with an extra meal on short notice.
I had two potatoes that I’d bought and never got around to using (see! they almost went to waste!) and there was a pile of tomatoes leftover from tomato picking. But I couldn’t find any recipes that fit all of my requirements – used plenty of both tomatoes and potatoes, didn’t require any ingredients I didn’t have, and actually sounded good. So I <gasp> came up with something on my own.
I sliced the potatoes thin and arranged them in a skillet. Once they were crisped on the bottom and mostly cooked through, I arranged sliced tomatoes over the top. Once those were softened, I arranged sliced mozzarella on top of that. It melted almost immediately, so I quickly picked a few leaves from my pathetic sun-starved basil plant, and sprinkled them over the tart.
It was pizza-like, which is always a plus. The potatoes were browned and crisp on the bottom. It was pretty. It was easy. It was tasty. It used up ingredients I didn’t know what else to do with. Perfect.
One year ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Potato Tomato Tart
Serves 2 for a light meal
I used a mandoline set at 1/8-inch to slice the potatoes and tomatoes.
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, sliced thin
salt and pepper
2 large (or maybe 3 small) plum tomatoes, sliced thin
2½ ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced thin (or just over ½ cup shredded)
3-4 basil leaves, sliced thin
1. Heat the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Arrange the potatoes in one layer on the bottom of the skillet, overlapping each slice. Season with pepper and a generous pinch of salt. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are almost tender and are lightly browned on the bottom.
2. Arrange the tomatoes in one layer of overlapping slices over the potatoes. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the tomatoes are slightly softened. Evenly disperse the mozzarella over the tomatoes and cook a few minutes, until it’s melty. Sprinkle the top of the tart with basil.
3. Serve. I was able to move the tart once, by sliding it from the pan to a serving plate. Then I realized it would be easier to cut the tart if it was on a cutting board, but moving it from the serving plate wasn’t nearly as easy as moving it from the pan. By which I mean that the whole thing mostly fell apart. So don’t try to move it around too much.
Looks great to me!
Yum! Bookmarking for next week’s menu 🙂
That looks delicious – hopefully the tomato blight won’t hit around here, so I’ll be able to find good fresh tomatoes to make it. It’s funny though, I do the same thing on weekends; I bake all day, then when dinner comes around? Blech, really don’t want to cook.
This looks pretty tasty! I wouldn’t think to put tomatoes and potatoes like that, but I think I like it!
Mmm. Looks like a scramble I used to make for myself – but yours is so much prettier.
Hurrah for ingenuity! I’m also imagining a dash of paprika and cayenne in there for some reason, yum. I’d call this a tomato potato tart, though 😉
It’s when I’m forced to think on the fly that some great recipes were created! This looks fantastic and kudos for a fabulous dish! It’s great catching up with your blog with all the delicious entries you’ve posted recently and hopefully I’ll have more time in the future to stop by and comment!
I love this! What an interesting twist on a pizza and a great way to use up ingredients on hand.
This looks great! I love potatoes and tomatoes together.
I love this idea and delightful twist on pizza! What a great way of using up surplus ingredients – ones we often have lying round 🙂
I’m going to give this a try with green tomatoes from Mom’s garden, new PEI potatoes, and goat cheese. MmmmM! Great pairing, never would have thought of it. 🙂
What a wonderful tart!
This looks great! I love having extra potatoes 🙂
This looks great! I often don’t get around to making dinner and then stuff gets wasted. I hate doing that! Good to know you came up with an awesome dinner:)
Beautiful tart, and great thinking! It sounds really delicious too.
What a gorgeous tart, so perfect for company!
OMG, yum! THis sounds great! I agree about cooking what I planned, because I hate wasting and am also slightly crazy and like being in the kitchen all day 🙂 My husband laughs at me when I get like that!
Sounds like the perfect dinner solution to me! It looks beautiful. I have been trying to cut out the waste around here but it can be tough!
WOW I loveeeee the look and sound of both of these! Thanks for the recipes! 🙂
This is my kind of tart. It sounds and looks soooo delicious.
Looks delicious! Very clever idea, there have got to be a ton of yummy variations. Can’t wait to try this!
Wow this looks amazing! How creative…this looks delicious.
I made this tart last night in an effort to use up some of my piles of produce (I hate wasting food, too). It was really tasty! I’m glad I came across your blog and recipe, thanks!
I tried this last night, it was super yummy! Mine didn’t stay together like yours did but the flavor was great. I didn’t have any mozzarella on hand so I used goat cheese which worked nicely too!