Zucchini Tomato Ricotta Chèvre Tart with Italian Herbs

So this whole idea began with a wedge of ricotta salata. I bought it without truly knowing what we’d use it for. I had briefly flirted with the idea of making a Turkey Lasagna or using the cheese on one of the cheese boards that we’ve been making lately, before deciding that I wanted to make a zucchini tart.

While we have made our tart crusts from scratch, I’m really a fan of the taste and convince of the Pillsbury Refrigerated Roll Out Pie Crust. Since I have issues with cows milk/butter etc, I went with my ricotta salata (sheep’s milk cheese) and 4oz of one of my favorite goat cheeses.

An important thing to remember whether you’re using pre-made pie crust or making your pie crust from scratch is par-baking your crust. For our tart we used our Williams-Sonoma 10″ tart pan and par-baked our crust for 15 minutes. Another important thing to remember is to aerate your crust with a fork before placing your tart crust in the oven!

We looked at several different recipes to get an idea on how many zucchini’s and what we could season our tart with in addition to the pinch of salt and olive oil that we tossed our zucchini before we layered cheese. For our tomatoes after we thinly sliced them in the food processor, we just patted them dry with paper towels to help soak up some of the extra moisture. (You don’t want a soggy tart!)

To get the fine cheese slices from our wedge of ricotta salata we used a cheese shaver that is typically used for semi-hard to hard cheeses, and it worked perfectly. However, if you don’t have a cheese shaver or cheese grater you can just cut very fine slices of cheese for your ricotta layer.

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Zucchini, Tomato Ricotta Goat Cheese Tart with Italian Herbs

Ingredients —

• 1 pie rolled crust
• 1 large zucchini (thinly sliced)
• 2 roma tomatoes (thinly sliced)
• 1/2 wedge ricotta salada (aka sheeps milk ricotta)
• 4 oz chèvre
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• olive oil
• salt (to taste)
• diced pancetta (to taste)
• Italian herb blend (for garnish)

Equipment —

• Williams-Sonoma 10 inch tart pan
• Pie weights (or) dried beans or rice
• Tin foil
• Cheese shaver (optional)
• Food Processor (optional)

Directions —

1. Set oven to 400F
2. Allow rolled pie crust to set out for 15 minutes 
3. Roll out pie crust and press into tart pan
4. Lay piece of tin foil over the crust and place pie weights or dried beans on top
5. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes 
6. Thinly slice tomatoes & zucchini and toss with olive oil and a dash of salt
7. Once the crust is par-baked and cooled for about 5 minutes 
8. Add layer of crumbled goat cheese (4 oz) along with thin slices of ricotta salada using a cheese shaver
9. Add a layer of zucchini/tomatoes, followed by another layer of ricotta salada and a final layer of zucchini/tomatoes 
10. Top with diced pancetta or crumbled bacon. (optional)
11. Bake for 30 minutes,  let cool for 5 minutes, cut into wedges
12. Garnish with fresh lemon thyme (or regular thyme!)

Note: If you want a thicker crust (because it will shrink up when you bake it) use both of the roll-out pie crusts included in the Pillsbury box.