It’s Been a While.

I’m emerging from hibernation to record a recipe I made over the weekend before I forget what I did.

No drama behind my absence – just taking a breather.  I’ve been doing a lot of knitting – I’m on the home stretch of my second cardigan of the year, if you can believe that.

More on the knitting on a different day.  Today, I want to tell you about this:

This is a potato, caramelized onion, and gorgonzola tart I made on Saturday.  I found myself with a surfeit of refrigerated pie crust from a quiche baking exercise.  We always seem to have a lot of potatoes threatening to sprout themselves into disgusting potato hell.  So I started thinking about potato tarts.  I did some research and mostly found tarts that included a custard of cream or milk and egg, but since we had just eaten a lot of quiche that didn’t seem to suit.  So I winged it, and the result is sort of a cross between a tart and a gallette.  It was tasty and a wedge with a salad alongside made a nice supper.  This could also serve as a heavy appetizer, cut into small squares.

Potato, Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Tart

1 refrigerated, ready to use pie crust

about 6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch rounds

4 strips of bacon

1 T butter

2 large onions, sliced into 1/8 inch rounds

2 T balsamic vinegar

1 T fresh rosemary, chopped

1 t dried thyme

2 oz. gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

a pat or two of extra butter

salt and pepper as needed, to taste

Heat the oven to 425 F.  Unroll the pie crust and place it in an 11-inch tart pan (or do this free-form on a baking sheet – no formality necessary).  Poke the crust all over with a fork, and weight it down with dried beans or pie weights on top of tin foil.  Bake for 12 minutes and remove from oven.

Lower oven temperature to 375.

Place the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover by an inch or so.  Add some salt and if you are feeling festive, a bay leaf.  Bring to a simmer and cook until just barely tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain.

While the potatoes cook, brown the bacon in a saute pan until crisp.  Remove to paper towels and crumble when cool enough to handle.  Reserve.  Drain off the bacon fat, leaving just a slick in the pan.  Add 1 T butter and the onions.  Slowly saute the onions until they begin to turn golden.  Add the balsamic vinegar and the herbs, with salt and pepper to taste.

Place a thick layer of potato rounds atop the par-baked pie crust (about an inch thick).  Dot with a few bits of butter, just to keep things moist, and sprinkle a bit of salt over the potatoes.  Add the caramelized onions, covering the potato layer.  Sprinkle on the crumbled bacon and the gorgonzola.  Return to the oven and bake for about 20 minutes (more if you’ve allowed everything to cool or done steps ahead and refrigerated the components).

Since certain members of this household object to gorgonzola, I made some mini-tarts with Swiss Cheese to mollify them.  They were devoured, so I have to assume this makes a good substitution!

I hope everyone is well!

 

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