Savory Onion and Leek Tart Recipe
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Inspired by the Alsatian flammenküche, which is a tart with onions, cream, and bacon, this dish is an homage to cuisine from German-speaking Europe (Alsace, Austria, Belgium, and Germany in particular). Because we like to make things a little more interesting, we decided to add some leeks, crème fraîche, and a mix of herbs. Serve this tart alone, or paired with a Butter Lettuce and Pumpkin Seed Salad.
What to buy: Please take the time to make this dough from scratch, which will lend a flaky butteriness to the dish. Of course, if you are short on time, go ahead and use a store-bought crust. Just try to get the best you can find.
Crème fraîche is a naturally thickened fresh cream with a tangy flavor and a rich texture, and it does not curdle or separate when heated. If you can’t find it, sour cream is a decent substitute.
Game plan: Here are some tips on how to make the dough. It can be made well ahead of time and then rolled out and formed when you are ready to make the tart. Also, the onions and leeks could be sautéed up to a day ahead. Just don’t combine them with the herbs and the crème fraîche until you are ready to bake the tart, because you don’t want the flavors to become too intense.
This recipe was featured as part of our Moktoberfest! menu.
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 medium white onions, thinly sliced
- 2 medium leeks, sliced lengthwise and thinly sliced (white part only)
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh marjoram leaves
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1/2 cup crème fraîche
- Basic Pie Dough, refrigerated
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon cold water
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When it foams, add 1/3 of the onions and leeks. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook until onions and leeks are caramelized and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and reserve in a mixing bowl. Cook remaining onions and leeks in two more batches, using 1 tablespoon of the butter per batch.
- Combine herbs and crème fraîche with onion-leek mixture and check the seasoning. Add more salt and pepper as necessary, and let the mixture rest until it has cooled, about 5 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 425°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Lightly flour a work surface and roll the pie dough out into a round approximately 11 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Cut the dough into a 10-inch round (an overturned dinner plate and a paring knife work great). Lay the dough on a baking sheet and evenly spread the filling throughout, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold the perimeter of the dough (the outer 1 inch) over the filling and flute the edge by pinching it between your forefingers. (Check out our photo tutorial on How to Shape a Free-Form Piecrust for more information.)
- Make an egg wash by whisking the egg yolk with the cold water. Brush the outer edge of the tart with the wash. Place on the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake until the bottom of the crust is golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Beverage pairing: Serve with a light pilsner, such as Czechvar, or with a British stout, like Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. For wines, a cool, clean Pinot Blanc from, say, Alsace, Austria, or Oregon provides a creamy texture to complement this tart, along with just enough underlying acidity to cut through the richness. We recommend the 2005 Elk Cove Willamette Valley Pinot Blanc.
This was incredibly soupy. I thought while I was making it that it needed an egg to hold the creme fraiche together, and I should have added one. As written, it came out very tasty but way too runny to work as a tart. I wound up serving it with a large spoon. Fortunately, it was just for my husband and me. I would have been embarrassed to serve this to guests.
I've made this - it was delicious!
I think I love you Big Girl Phoebz.
This is a great tart! Have made it many times & always with great reviews. The dough isn't that hard to make & gets easier each time.
This tart is so beautiful. I absolutely love leeks as a sweet/savory filling. I make leek comfit all the time and mix it with various other veg for empanadas, quiches, crostadas. One of my favorites was a butternut squash and leek comfit quesadilla. I think that filling would work really well here!
http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/2...
I really want to make this but absolutely do not have the time to make my own crust. Will it be terrible with a store bought one?
think? I know. It's great. And yes, food processor works fine for mixing the dough.
As a creme fraiche substitute, I added plain yogurt instead and the tart still had a great creamy texture. As another twist, I added a little crisped up, crumbled bacon on top to give it a little added crunch with the flaky dough.
I just made this for dinner tonight.
but instead of using creme fraiche,
I used mixture of herb goat cheese & cream cheese.
and no leek.
It was rich & sweet & flaky.
delicious.
pie dough is defenitaly worth making.
dough boy can't beat home made pie crust.
WOW, I remember something like this when I was growing up in Europe
Another delicious and easy tart is Patricia Wells' Flamiche aux Poireaux (leek tart with ham) from her "Bistro Cooking."
I tried making this a couple times. The pseudo creme fraiche recipe (http://www.chow.com/recipes/10696) worked quite well. I liked that it was a savoury tart, but had this nice, sweet undertone to it.
In a foolish attempt to short-cut this recipe (mostly due to lack of ingredients), I once tried sour cream as a creme fraiche substitue. It wasn't awful, per se, but it was kind of chunky and eliminated the smooth continuity among the onions and leeks that the creme fraiche created. Having tried this alternative, making the creme fraiche is certainly worth the effort.
This sounds good. Discovered a great way to simplify the pastry-rolling when making free-form tarts, savory or sweet, that are going to be baked on a baking sheet or flat pan, rather than in a pie plate: simply put the disk of dough directly onto the baking sheet and roll it out there. You do not need to flour the cookie sheet or pan, and the dough is easily rolled thin or to whatever thickness you like. And there's no risk of its breaking or tearing or becoming overly worked, because the dough doesn't have to be lifted or handled.
Works a charm, besides being a relief.
And another superb onion tart is Julia Child's "Pissaladiere Nicoise" in her Vol. 1 Mastering the Art of French Cooking. NO cream, no eggs, no butter. Just onions, anchovies, olives and olive oil. And bliss.
Just made it over the weekend, on a similar pastry crust (though used slightly less flour that the recipe called for here: 1 1/4 cups of flour to 1 stick of butter, a pinch of salt, and around 3 Tablespoons of ice water, done in the processor)
The filling is then about 2 lbs of minced onions that have been cooked slowly, for about an hour, in about 4 T olive oil, and an herb bouquet of a little parsley, thyme, bay leaf (or you could use Provencal herbs). The onions melt to pale gold rather than take on deep color.
Pat these into the tart (8" pan) that has been pre-baked for about 12 minutes. Then top with about 8 oil-cured anchovies arranged in a spoke pattern, and about 16 pitted oil-cured dry black olives. Dribble about a tablespoon of olive oil over the top.
Bake in the upper third of the oven, at 400 degrees, for about 20 minutes until bubbling. It's fantastic.
But for any tart that doesn't require baking in a pie or quiche or tart pan.....just put the pastry dough on the baking sheet and roll.
- rgallica
This recipe ends without indicating how long to bake it!
Hey gochrisgo: We didn't test this recipe using a food processor, but it should work just fine. If you do so, opt for the pulse button because you don't want to overwork it and end up with tough, overly elastic dough.
Can you use the food processor to make the pastry dough?