Crown tart with Provençal vegetables Festive recipe

A tart with Provençal vegetables, tomato, eggplant, pepper, beautifully presented in the shape of a crown for your aperitifs, barbecues, light lunches…

This tart is a bit halfway between the sublime sun tart with its delicious rays and the tomato tart with a mustard base, or my mother’s three pepper tart. It always has a WOW effect even though it is extremely simple to make, a bit like rustic tarts where a few folds and that’s it.

I offer you here a filling with summer vegetables for a summer crown tart, served with burrata straight out of the oven, but you can use the main principles of this recipe to adapt it with winter vegetables, ham and cheese or any other savory topping. And even in a sweet version.

The ingredients of the recipe

This recipe may seem super easy, and it actually is, but it’s rather complicated for me to describe it because, every time I cook it, I make a slightly different version. Let me explain, here are some variations you can do:

The choice of vegetables: I offer you here eggplant, pepper and cherry tomatoes. You can vary with the traditional ratatouille vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, pepper and tomato.
You can choose two, or three, or all four, or even play on the varieties with, for example, different colors of peppers or varieties of eggplant.
I advise you to pre-cook them by frying them with olive oil, onion or shallot, garlic, Provence herbs. You can cook them together or separately.

You can choose other vegetables : winter vegetables such as carrots, leeks, pumpkin or butternut squash…

You can add cheese like feta, Emmental, Reblochon… or mozzarella. Here I recommend burrata placed after cooking on the still hot tart.

You can also add bacon For example.

For the base, I choose slightly thick tomato coulis. You can replace with a pesto or mustard base. Optionally mix them with half of fresh cheese such as Saint Môret or Philadelphia.

These are just examples, the range of possibilities is very wide.

Here are the main steps to achieve a pretty crown shape for your tart every time. I give you here all the steps and my advice. I also made you a step by step in photosit is often much more telling. I will also add the link to the full recipe video.

Choose a round pie crust. Ideally puff pastrythis will give you pretty, slightly inflated triangles which will give volume to your tart. But any type of pie crust is suitable. Shortcrust pastry, shortbread or even sweet pastry in a dessert version.

Start by making a round mark in the center. The size of a bowl is perfect. Press a little to make a large circle without piercing the dough.

Then Using a sharp paring knife, cut lines in the center of the circle. Either two strokes by cutting this central circle into four quarters to make 4 points, or into 6 with 3 knife strokes, or even into 8 with 4 knife strokes but then you will have small points at your crown.

Fill the outer ring with the filling: tomato coulis, vegetables…

Then finally before putting in the oven, fold the center tips over the filled circle. Press a little so that they stay in place and do not fall into the middle during cooking.

You can leave the dough as is or pass some gilding on the folded ends: either beaten egg (whole or yolk with a drop of water), or liquid cream, that works too.

I also suggest that you straighten the dough a little all around to form a sort of border but it is absolutely not obligatory.

Finally bake in the oven for around thirty minutes..