Zucchini tart with feta

Well this was a treat. Friend Stripey gave me an issue of Saveur magazine which had this recipe featured on the cover. Gave it a whirl and it turned out very well! Quite rich — only had a third of it tonight — but we’ll see how well it keeps for the next couple of days!

The recipe follows, copy/pasted from the link to Saveur‘s archives above — and thanks to Lynne Curry for creating it!

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New Zealander Lynne Curry, who provided this recipe, serves this tart by the slice from her stand at the Matakana farmers’ market.

1 10″ × 13″ sheet frozen puff pastry,
thawed and chilled
12 small zucchini (about 2 1⁄2 lbs.), trimmed
Salt
3 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped, strained in
a sieve, excess moisture pressed out
1 cup (4 oz.) crumbled feta cheese
1⁄2 cup ricotta
2 tbsp. chopped basil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Fit pastry into a 9″ × 12″ baking sheet, pressing it against sides. Score around bottom inner edge of pastry (beside crease where bottom meets sides), being careful to not cut all the way through, with a paring knife. Prick bottom of pastry all over with a fork, line with a sheet of parchment paper that fits in bottom only, and fill with pie weights or dry beans. Bake until edge of crust begins to puff and color, about 25 minutes. Remove weights and paper. Bake until bottom is golden, 6–8 minutes more. Let crust cool.

2. Grate 4 of the zucchini on large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Add 1 tbsp. of salt, toss well, and set aside to let weep for 30 minutes. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel and wring throughly to remove moisture.

3. Meanwhile, slice remaining zucchini into 1⁄4″-thick rounds. Working in batches, blanch rounds in a large pot of boiling salted water for 1 minute. Drain and spread out on a paper towel–lined sheet pan; set aside.

4. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. (Spoon out 1 tbsp. and reserve.) Add onions and cook until soft, 5–6 minutes. Add grated zucchini and cook, stirring often, until just beginning to brown, 5–7 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; let cool.

5. Stir tomatoes, half of the feta, ricotta, basil, and salt and pepper to taste into zucchini mixture. Stir in egg and spread mixture evenly in crust. Arrange zucchini rounds, slightly overlapping in rows, like tiles, on top. Bake for 15 minutes, then brush top with reserved butter. Continue to bake until crust is deep golden, 10 minutes more. Let cool to room temperature, then sprinkle remaining feta over top. Cut tart into squares.

This recipe was first published in Saveur in Issue #93

A quick further note on the Chatsworth Metrolink crash and texting

As mentioned earlier, it’s been an incredibly busy week for me and while I’ve been generally keeping note of further developments in the story I haven’t had the time to really comment much. Today’s revelation, however, deserves notice:

A Metrolink engineer sent a text message from his cellphone 22 seconds before he collided with an oncoming freight train in an accident that killed 25 people and injured 135 others last month, federal authorities said today.

Engineer Robert M. Sanchez sent the message at approximately 4:22 p.m., just before his Metrolink 111 train slammed into the Union Pacific freight train on Sept. 12 in Chatsworth, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a written statement. He also received a message about a minute earlier, the agency said.

….

The safety board today cautioned that its disclosures were preliminary.

“The precise timing and correlation of these events is still underway,” the NTSB said. Two key questions were whether Sanchez had left the station when he sent his last text message and how close he was to the point of impact with the Union Pacific train.

It’s extremely disheartening to read this, to be blunt. As noted, there’s still questions, so while the impulse to completely damn Sanchez is incredibly understandable, more must still be considered. However, I feel disheartened not out of a sense that Sanchez is being inaccurately blamed — while his union and his family are understandably arguing against this, frankly I think the circumstantial evidence is growing far stronger, not weaker — but because Sanchez would have done something like this so often in the first place, as the story notes.

More to say about this later, perhaps.