This Tomato Feta Egg Tart is perfect as an appetizer, side dish, or even for breakfast. It’s beautiful and incredibly delicious.
I mentioned recently how food waste has been weighing heavily on my mind. The fact that more than one-third of all food produced globally is wasted or spoiled, while there are people down the road from me living in food deserts who can’t afford to put a meal on the table is insane. INSANE. It’s been causing me to make changes. Small ones, because when I take on too much too quickly, the habits don’t stick.
There are so many resources available for combating food waste, including a slew of online articles filled with tips and tricks. In addition to incorporating better habits into our household, I’ve been looking for ways to get creative with what I already have.
A quick Google search brought me to some great articles about how to reduce food waste, such as this one from Mashable. Some highlights:
- Buy less. There are only two of us, and since I don’t plan meals, it’s hard to know exactly how much we actually need. Maybe it’s time to revisit meal planning again? It’s a bit tricky in our situation, since I’m often so sick of cooking by the end of the day that I just want stick a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner. I often plan with the best of intentions, and it completely fails.
- Preserve. I’ve always canned homemade chicken stock and that’s about it. Recently I’ve been making shrubs from excess berries before they have a chance to go bad. It’s a great way to preserve them, and I’ll have some recipes to share soon. I’m also trying to get better about using our freezer properly. If it’s not frozen pizza, ice cream or tamales, I forget it exists until it’s 10 months old and covered with ice crystals.
- Write it down. This article suggests writing down everything I waste. That sounds like a painful exercise. However, guilt works wonders on me.
I had several tomatoes sitting on my counter and no plan for them. Goat feta in my refrigerator. Puff pastry in the freezer. Fresh herbs in the backyard. Voila, a tart is born. This would make a lovely appetizer, but I also think it would be perfect for breakfast on the weekend. In the spirit of not wasting food, please note: I grow all of these herbs in my garden, but don’t feel the need to run out and purchase all of them just to use a few tablespoons and discard the rest. You can omit one or two. You could toss on some dried herbs instead. Use whatever tomatoes you have. Many cheeses will work. If you have mozzarella or goat, try those instead.
Tell me, do you have any tips for preventing food waste? I am all ears!
Tomato Feta Egg Tart
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 1 small shallot, sliced thin (approximately 3-4 tablespoons)
- 1/2 cup good quality feta, crumbled (goat cheese may be substituted)
- 1-2 vine tomatoes, heirlooms may be substituted, sliced thin
- 5 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste depending on saltiness of the cheese
- Coarse ground black pepper to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh basil, sliced thin
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Fold the puff pastry sheet in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry to thin out the rectangle and shape it into a 14x5 inch tart pan. Chill for 10-15 minutes to firm up the dough.
- Sprinkle the shallots evenly into the bottom of the tart pan and top with half of the cheese.
- Spread slices of tomato into the pan, leaving some space for raw eggs either between slices or to the sides (see photos).
- Crack 1 egg into a small ramekin or liquid measuring cup. Gently pour/place it onto the tart between tomato slices. Repeat with the remaining 4 eggs.
- Top with the remaining cheese, followed by the thyme and oregano. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
- Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and then into the oven. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the whites have set. Top with fresh basil before serving.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
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How absolutely beautiful. I make meal plans, but I never stick to them. I too am trying to cut back on food waste, but I admit it’s more due to selfish/financial reasons. I’m curious to see your shrub recipes–I have a bad problem with over-buying fruit this time of year, and then having to chuck a bunch of it since it’s gone bad.
This is really inspiring. It’s so easy to forget about food waste, but it’s actually a good challenge in the kitchen to come up with something that looks this good from odds-and-ends. Maybe I can start looking at it as a fun challenge instead of “random food that I don’t know what to do with.” Thank you! And this tart looks completely delicious.
I really try not to waste food, but it is tough. I have gotten pretty good at it. I know our routine and what we’ll likely eat. When I think something is about to turn, it forces me to get creative and make something sweet or savory with it. It can actually be kind of fun.
If I was to make the tart, I would definitely not waste a single bite! Seriously, give me the whole darn thing!
This tart is just perfect. Not just the flavors and presentation, but the motivation behind it. Waste reduction is something I hold very dear to my heart. I hate the thought of wasting anything. People think I am crazy because I refuse to throw things out, but I just cannot stand to do it. It makes me so happy to hear it is something you are also working to help reduce. Every small bit helps!
It is funny, because I read an article on Huffington Post this morning about this very subject. It is mind blowing to see the unfortunate ratio between how much food goes to waste and how many people are hungry in the US/world. Plus, all the food that is discarded simply because they don’t look “pretty”.
Like you, we buy only what we need. Instead of buying a lot, we make frequent trips to the supermarket. I also do my best to use leftover veggies and fruits in smoothies and veggie bowls.
Still, a lot of work needs to be done and we need to do it all together.
About this tart.. What I love about your recipes is that they are so simple and do-able. This tart is no different. It makes me want to stop what I am doing and go into the kitchen and make it.
Cheers to that!!
This tart looks SO delicious. Some of my favorite meals come about from random ingredients that need using. Those big bunches of herbs from the grocery store are my biggest pet peeve!
This is Sunday brunch for me, a slice with some espresso and a salad…perfect!!
The writing it down idea is one I should definitely try. I’m trying to get better about finding dinner with what’s in my fridge/cabinet because the temptation to just go get more food is strong. I have everything on hand for this tart (no joke!), so it’s happening this week!
Jen, this tart is to die for. . I love those tips above. . I am certainly guilty of wasting and try my best not to. . I hate throwing out food. . anyway, buying less and freezing before things go bad is what I’ve been doing. . I also throw a lot of veggies and ripe fruit into my smoothies so i’ve been saving some produce that way.
I have quite a bit of freezer space so I do this a lot: I keep bags in the freezer for chicken bones to later broil and boil for stock which I cool and refreeze if I’m not going to make soup right away. I have canned it but freezer’s easier. I keep a bag for stems, wilty veg that are not spoiled, peels of some things and the like, when the freezer gets full of them I boil them up, strain it and either make soup or refreeze for soup later. I keep a bag in my freezer for fruit peels, bananas that have gotten too brown, apple cores, grapes that are too squishy and any other fruit that is no longer lovely but not spoiled. When I get a bunch of these I put it all in the slow cooker (not banana peels or the apple seeds) and let it cook down into a dense, brownish/maroon jam to serve with brownies and crème fraiche or Greek yogurt.
I love those tips and will definitely try
This dish is right up my alley and I look forward to trying,I really don’t have any good tips.I’m buying and cooking for one.I’m a nurse that lives in with my patient four days/nights a week so basically I cook and freeze asap & if not possible I bring whatever I cant o my job for my patient and I.90% of my patients suffer from Alzheimer’s & dementia.They tend to lean toward food cooked when they were growing up,but it’s all good.Thanks for the recipes.
This looks delicious! One question – since you don’t roast your tomatoes before putting them in the tart, how do you keep them from making your crust soggy?
As far as food waste goes, we’ve been pretty bad at it lately. The only time we were really good at not letting food go to waste was when we were first married and dirt poor. Really the only thing we did differently then was that we were religious about meal planning. We had a tiny grocery budget with no wiggle room, so we had to be very purposeful in our spending. We planned two weeks at a time, shopped for it all in one go, then did it again in two weeks. I would cook one night, then we would eat the leftovers the next night. That way I wasn’t cooking constantly and we were eating up all the leftovers. I would also often cook double whatever I was making and freeze half for later. We were very successful with this for the first couple of years of our marriage, but for some reason have not been able to get back into that habit since then. Your post has inspired me to try harder!
The only other tip I have is to label all leftovers with masking tape when you put it in the fridge/freezer (including the date it was made). For some reason, just being able to know by the label what is in each container makes it easier not to overlook things or wonder “what the heck is that and when did I make it??”
I was a little worried about the crust going soggy the first time I tried making a tomato tart, but it holds up fine! The puff pastry does a surprisingly great job considering how delicate it is. I have a few different variations up on the blog.
Regarding your question about how we stop waste, I do a couple of things regularly to prevent wasting food. Some of my favorites are to keep a couple of bags in the freezer, one for bones, one for vegetable trimmings and one for fruit that will be going bad if I leave it on the counter one more day!!! When the fruit bag gets full I take it out and put it in my tiny slow cooker and cook it down to jam consistency. I usually add some brandy or dark rum while it cooks down and becomes a most delicious jam or dip for other fresh fruit or crackers. Veg trimmings go in a pot on the stove to cook, and are strained for broth. The mushy long cooked veg go into the compost. I do not put asparagus in that, but rarely does it go in the compost because it is something I can barely leave in the frig over night without munching it raw or dreaming about it on my plate. Bones get boiled until they become soft, then I strain them out and put them in the compost and either freeze the broth in flat bags for soup later or am ready with soaked beans for soup right away.