We invited friends to dinner, and I tried to keep it simple.
But I also was on fire to make another Tarte de Soleil (I had made one for New Year's Eve, but who can truly delve into a thing like that with dozens of guests and a table groaning with their fabulous offerings as well?).
And no matter how you slice it, Tarte de Soleil is not going to be all that casual. But it had to be done!
I had seen this flakey hors d'oeuvre of awesomeness on Smitten Kitchen, and as I told you on Instagram, was ready to go for it — but lacking Manhattan's endless supply of, well, everything, knew right away that I had to make my own puff pastry.
People, that Pepperidge Farm stuff looks good but is not worth it. Since it's made with oil, not butter, it's going to taste like nothing at all. And while we want to wow everyone with dazzling looks, ultimately, taste better be up there, or how disappointed will we be?
Before I get started on the method here, I will give you the menu. It's casual in that there aren't a million dishes (which is how I usually tend to go) and it could all — ALL! — be done ahead of time: not my usual MO.
Since these friends are that delightful kind who will be keeping us wrapped in brilliant, deep conversation from the get-go (no ice-breaking needed! That's what I love about good friends! What a blessing!), I didn't want to be tied up out in the kitchen, but ready to go with the food.
The menu:
House Cocktails* ~ The Chief's department
Chardonnay
Tarte de Soleil and Feta Dipping Sauce
Butternut Squash Lasagna with Italian Sausage**
Kale and Lettuce Salad with Red Onion, Vinaigrette Dressing (homemade)
Homemade Country Bread (from my freezer stash)
Some kind of excellent red wine I'm not remembering, need to ask Habou, and also a nice dry white
Toothsome Brownie Heart Cake with Chocolate Glaze (it was the “vigil of Valentine's Day” in my defense)***
Ice Cream (not homemade — so casual!)
Tea, Coffee
*We are of the opinion that a cocktail made just for the occasion is delightful. We had our “Bee Sting” aka “Colony Collapse” special, which is bourbon, honey syrup, lime, and ginger ale — as well as a “Cuban Mojito” in honor of the Pope's visit to Mexico and Cuba. This is a mojito made with tequila. (Note to self, no.)
** I use Alexandra's recipe, with these tweaks: I don't bother straining the (minced) garlic and sage, but leave them right in the sauce — why not? I used regular lasagna noodles and lots of sauce, but the squash was separate, as mine was already cooked (it's my own harvest and I had roasted and stashed lots away — it's all basically reduced and pureed at that point). And I do fry up Italian sausage and pop that over the squash as well. (So, noodles, squash, sausage, sauce, cheese, repeat.) Excellent and can be made the morning of. Just pop it into the oven as the guests arrive.
*** My brownie recipe (un-salted-caramel version) is tried-and-true and quick, as is the chocolate glaze. Again, can all be made the day before.
Okay, on to this tarte. You can do this if you are used to making pie crust — just make it with all butter this time (usually I do a little lard, but all butter is better for the puff pastry, because butter contains a little moisture that steams up as it cooks, providing the little lift in the dough, making it even flakier).
I used the Julia Child The Way to Cook method for rough puff pastry. It's so simple (and casual!) — after your pie crust is chilled, roll it out, dot with some more butter, fold it in thirds, roll, chill. Do this again, then do it again without the butter, twice. Voila! As long as the butter is staying chilled, you don't need long rests between the steps. (I did this all the day before, assembling the tarte in the morning.)
My filling was a tapenade with some sun dried tomatoes and dried basil — both from my garden, which made me happy.
The twisting looks incredibly demanding of high skills, but it's actually not!
You really only have to pay attention to the cutting of the “rays” — here's how: put a small glass in the center to make a circle shape on the dough. Cut lines that cut the pastry in half (but don't go through the circle). Then do the same to make quarters. Then do the same to make eighths. Each time, cut opposite to where you cut before — don't cut by going around. That way, you will keep things balanced. Also, rotate the pan. Now do sixteenths, and then thirty-seconds.
Now twist each ray three times. Don't worry, it's easy.
I'm glad I have this tin tray — otherwise I would not really have anything to serve the tarte on. On New Year's Eve, I put it on a cake pedestal, but that's not casual at all! When you are making this, think ahead to what you will serve it on. If you don't have a large tray, think about making two small ones and put them on pretty plates instead.
Tarte de Soleil ~ Like Mother, Like Daughter
Rough Puff Pastry:
Pâte Brisée (you can find Julia's recipe here, but use all butter, and double the recipe!)
4 Tbsp butter
Chill the Pâte Brisée. Roll it out into a small rectangle, dot with half the (softened) butter, two-thirds of the surface. Fold in thirds by folding the bare section up 1/3 of the way, then fold again. Roll lightly into a small rectangle, chill for 45 minutes. Do this once more with the rest of the butter, then twice more with no butter, chilling if necessary. Don't worry, it will come out very delish and flakey. You can do this ages ahead of time, even freezing the dough, well wrapped.
Filling:
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives (you can also use those lovely large green ones, or a mixture)
1/2 cup chopped artichoke hearts (from a can or jar, drained well) [I'm editing to add this — I just remembered that I put these in there too!]
2 Tbsps pickled capers
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 large garlic clove, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil or as much as you need to bind everything together, but not so much that it's at all drippy
Process this all in your food processor, or chop finely. You want sort of a paste, but honestly, if you can spread it, all will be well. Again, this can be made long ahead of time.
1 egg, lightly beaten, for a wash over all when it's assembled.
Divide your dough in half. Roll one piece thinly, until it's a bit larger than the size you want your finished tarte to be. (If you are doing two small ones, divide into fourths).
This is important: Cut your circle out of the dough — do not shape your dough into a circle! Why? Because if you want the edges to puff up uniformly, you need to not have folds (remember all that folding?) on the edges. Can you picture this? You need the edges to be “free.” You can form all your scraps (trying to keep them layered, rather than balling them up) into another batch of dough, freeze it, and pull it out another day for puff pastry treats. (Julia has many suggestions.)
Place your circle of dough on your pan (I use a 16″ pizza pan). Spread your filling almost to the edges, leaving about a scant inch. Moisten the bare rim with the egg wash. Roll out the other piece of dough and place it on top. Press the edges together lightly.
Now do your cutting of “rays” as described above, using a small glass to mark a center and cutting with a sharp knife into 32 spokes. Twist each spoke three times. Brush the egg over all.
Bake at 375° (0r 400° if your oven runs cool — you need good heat to get that butter to boil up and flake up your dough) for 30 minutes, rotate it, reduce the heat a little if you need to (that is, if it's browning on top/on the edges too fast), and bake for 5 or 10 minutes more, until it's all very flakey and nicely browned all the way down the sides of each ray — a mistake that would be easy to make would be to take it out before all the pastry is cooked through.
People can twist off pieces with their fingers, or you can provide little tongs.
Not necessary, but very nice:
Feta dip or spread:
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
4 Tbsps greek yogurt or thick organic yogurt, plain
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Mix all together, adding water if it needs to be thinner. Taste for salt (it's unlikely it needs any) and grind a little black pepper in there.
Donna L. says
Dear Auntie Leila! This is so inspired!
I have always been quite reluctant to try this—for fear of *wasting* butter and dough! Is this quite like making croissants? It looks familiar to that recipe!
Leila says
Yes, Donna, same process. It’s really so easy — if you can make a pie crust, you can do it!
Lisa G. says
And do you really use *cake* flour – do you have to?
Leila says
No, certainly not. It will result in something more tender, but only marginally so.
Tia says
Funnily enough, I tried this for dinner this weekend, as a dress rehearsal for my book club next month. It was delicious and my kiddos devoured it, but I’m afraid my sun rays were all wonky looking. The toddlers didn’t care but for a more formal get together I’d feel a bit embarrassed by the effort. Perhaps the issue is that all the 1/32 rays were not totally uniform in size. Also, seems like making the circle truly 12 inches in diameter was important. If you use a smaller plate, doing three twists isn’t feasible. I’ve been wanting to try rough puff pastry but am too intimidated. This perhaps will give me the fortification needed to try.
Caitlin says
A funny story about How to Cook– I ordered myself an old copy from Amazon on your recommendation, Auntie Leila. I was looking forward to having a good old-fashioned cookbook to read through that would tell me how to do all the stuff (because recipes, in the sense of combining flavors, etc, are easy to come by or invent. But I need to learn more technique!) My neighbor happened to be around when the book was delivered, and I started to show it to her, saying ‘Oh, this is one of those great, really practical, old-fashioned cookbooks.’ And I promptly opening it to the page where the sculpturally reconstructs a fish out of tuna salad and plops the reserved fish head right on there. With a lovely collar of lemon slices! For a moment I doubted the worth of this aspic-centric book, I must admit! It IS funny to look through the photography and see how thoughts on food styling have changed (And for the record, later I found the good parts where she tells you how to take apart chickens, etc, and my faith was restored! 😉
Leila says
Caitlin, go back and read again — it is a poached salmon, served cold! And you know what, this sort of elegant thing is really useful when you are racking your brains for something that is nice enough for company but can be done ahead of time.
Of course, dear Julia is very French-cooking oriented — it’s her thing. But once you know these techniques, you are much more free to make good food without even looking.
I’m glad your faith was restored, though 🙂
Mary K says
Oh My. This looks like it would make a wonderful dessert as well – with a fig or date or apricot spread, or perhaps a thick berry preserve. I’m going to try it! (One of these days…)
Lisa G. says
It looks so beautiful! Many years ago I made Danish pastry (I’m not sure how similar it is to puff), but I wasn’t sure what was meant by “chilling” the dough. (this was before the internet) I decided it must mean the freezer. So, I’d roll it out, then fold, fold and fold, and put it in the freezer. Of course, it got stiffer each time as I was struggling to roll it into the rectangle. I eventually understood they meant the fridge. I made the pastry one day, filled them the next, brought them to work the following day, and they were gone in ten minutes. I haven’t even thought of trying it since. 😀
Denise B says
This looks beautiful! Our bookclub is reading Elijah in Jerusalem by Michael D O’Brien and the theme is food from Jerusalem. Is there a particular filling that might make this presentation work? Inspired as always. And I especially liked the colony collapse cocktail.
Leila says
As this filling is very mediterranean, I think it would be highly appropriate! Olives, feta cheese… it’s got it all.
Tamara says
You are so funny making your own puff pastry for a casual dinner! 🙂 I’d love to see what you come up with for a fancy meal! 😉
Leila says
I know, Tamara, I slay myself!
Janet says
Leila, thank you for this! I am not a “fancy” cook but I do like involved recipes or those that require a little extra attention. So many of my friends consider anything that involves making bread or crust from scratch “out of their league”. It’s not but they will never find out because with all the frozen items available they won’t even try. It wasn’t so long ago that our mothers and grandmothers (I’m 63) got up every morning and made the daily loaf. Now I have a 67 year old friend who is “scared of yeast”! What’s up with that??
Melissa D says
I think people who are scared of yeast are really (like me) …. lazy with regard to kneading! My mixer does all the work. 🙂
Rae says
I used to avoid making anything with yeast, because no matter how hard I tried, I failed – even if all I had to do was bake the bread my mom mixed up! I could make cake, cookies, and pastries no problem, the more complicated the better I liked it, but if it had yeast it was out. I didn’t understand yeast doughs and how to work with them until I got the book “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.” Now I can handle pretty much any yeast recipe, unless I do something silly like forget the salt (like I did today!) Not only are the recipes in the book easy and almost foolproof, the instructions are very detailed and the skills learned transfer over to “traditional” bread making. I highly recommend it to everyone!
P.S. I’m new here, but have a feeling I’ll be around for awhile ☺️
Leila says
Welcome, Rae! If I forget the salt (it happens! happened to my beautiful Easter loaves, waaah!), I remind myself that there is a special Italian bread, Pano Tuscano, that is *purposely* made without salt!
And then, pass the salted butter 🙂
Here is a recipe with an explanation: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/tuscan-bread-pane-toscano-recipe
Nancy says
Thank you for sharing. Awhile ago, you posted a link about celebrations in the home (Crisis Magazine/Jeffrey Tucker) and I bookmarked it. I have recently attended parties/gatherings that could have been given in the home, but for some reason the host/hostess decided to rent a room in a club or hall. I really think we need to get back to entertaining in our homes. It does take some work to clean (but one can look at it as spring cleaning) and get over our homes not looking like a picture in Architectural Digest.
Also, thank you for your pictures that go along with your recipe!
Logan says
Love casual dinners!
Also, your napkins are my favorite napkins my family had growing up and it made me feel all homey seeing them on your table.
Leila says
Logan, I know! The napkins are *that* old! And I did NOT iron them. That’s how casual this dinner was. (But I do love them, and the provencal vibe was just right, I think… )
Cristina says
I was one of those people who wouldn’t dare to make “elaborate” things from scratch. I think my unconscious logic was that if the market had it prepacked then it meant that it was challenging to make. (Cake mix, pie crust, etc). One day I decided to make a pie crust and I haven’t looked back. I couldn’t believe how easy (and entertaining!) it was.
Leila says
Cristina, so true! Like “rice mixes” and brownie boxes… who can blame the poor gal for feeling incapable… these are the easiest things to make! Pie crust does have a little trick to it, at least. But what do we have to lose by trying?
My dirty secret: This is how I felt for so long about tomato sauce! But now I’m learning to make it. I know, I know. 🙂
Ashley says
I’m not sure if you’ve found a tomato sauce recipe that you like, but we really enjoy Marcella Hazan’s simple tomato sauce with onion and butter. I find better quality canned tomatoes make a difference in this recipe (we like Muir Glen). It tastes delicious. When my mom first made it I couldn’t believe it had just tomatoes, butter and onion.
Lisa G. says
Tomato sauce? Now, that’s the one thing I can’t imagine making myself. I did make it once, and it was good, but the jar stuff has fairly good ingredients and it’s not expensive…. Although I can also remember the time you said, “Are you still buying salad dressing?” and the jolt it gave me. It took me a while, but now I do make it myself. 🙂
Ashley says
Only you can make a Smitten Kitchen recipe better. 🙂 The idea of making mock puff pastry appeals to me more then spending $10-15 for a box of all butter puff pastry at the gourmet grocery store.
Thanks for sharing your menu! I always love seeing how others entertain and what they serve.
Anamaria says
A friend and I are hosting a five course dinner to close the Easter octave (for 12! we thought everyone wouldn’t be able to come but it’s looking like they are!). Usually with little kids we are much more casual (not “casual” like you are, but actually casual), but sometimes we need a little statement of culture for adults-only (and nursing babes, but this time they are all older and will be asleep.)
anyway, one of my courses is appetizers and I think I’m making this. The food52 site says I need cultured butter! Is that true? I mean, I love cultured food for the digestive system, but, really??
Anamaria says
Nevermind, I consulted Julia! Of course no mention of cultured butter, though I may get grass-fed for the occasion.
Leila says
Anamaria, glad you consulted Julia! Isn’t all butter “cultured” butter? Isn’t that what butter is? Maybe they want to say “don’t use margarine you cretin” but don’t even want to mention the word, haha!
Anyway, it will be awesome! Enjoy!
Anamaria says
I think they mean butter from cultured cream as opposed to pasteurized cream- I don’t know that much about butter so maybe not! But that’s what my intuition plus a quick google search say.
http://www.farmhousecheeses.com/2014/01/26/understanding-butter-grass-fed-cultured-mean/
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-cultured-butter-and-regular
The Kerrygold grassfed butter I bought for the occasion says it is European-style and cultured. Hopefully it will add extra flavor to the puff pastry.
Thanks and happy Easter!