Four for Dinner

[This post was written weeks ago - time got away from me. Start of school and all.]

We had a fun, easy dinner last night. Melon with prosciutto to start, plus some white figs with a little blue cheese and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. For dinner, we had grilled boneless pork chops, french green beans from the garden (first and only bunch for the year), and a salad with arugula, beets, oranges and parmesan. Plus some fresh foccacia. S grilled the pork chops to perfection and he put some hickory wood chips (soaked in water for a little bit) on the fire. It was the best pork chop I’ve ever eaten.

Our friend RC brought over a scrumptious cherry pie last night for our dessert. All butter crust. Mmmm. She pitted 6 lbs. of sour cherries last week! The all butter crust inspired me to make a tart today, because we have a friend coming over for dinner. But, the weather is overcast and cool. Not summery feeling. And, I made some fresh applesauce on Monday because S picked a bunch of our (wormy) apples and I couldn’t let them go to waste – the apples, that is, not the worms. It took a while to cut up the apples so that no worms made it into the sauce. The sauce turned out very thick. I must not have added as much water as usual, or the apples were on the dry side. The consistency was perfect for a french apple tart. All butter crust, fresh thick applesauce, tart granny smith apples, a little sugar, a little jam to glaze it. That is it. O.k., I’m no Martha Stewart and it takes a while to prep all the different pieces of this. My kids are in camp. I have time on my hands. For short cuts, you could use a packaged pie crust (but it wouldn’t be all butter) and you could use a regular applesauce, as long as you reduce it down so that it is nice and thick.

Our dinner guest, RB, arrived bearing the gift of a lovely sparkling Moscato d’Asti that we sipped and savored while eating the apple tart. It was a great combination! Thank you RB!


French Apple Tart
serves 6-8

For the crust
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 lb. unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 Tbsp. icy-cold water

For the topping
1 1/2 c. thick applesauce
1 Tbsp. melted butter
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices (about 1/4-inch thick)
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 cup apricot or plum jam or currant jelly, heated and stirred

For the crust: Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse once to mix. Add the butter and turn on the processor for 5 seconds. Drizzle the water over the flour/butter combination. Pulse the food processor just until the mixture starts to make small clumps. Dump the mixtur onto a counter top and press together to make a disk. Flour the surface of the counter top and roll out the disk to about an 11-inch circle. Fold the dough into quarters and, carefully, transfer it into a 9-inch tart shell. Gently, fit the dough into the corners and then, trim the edge of the crust to about a 1-inch overhang. Fold the overhang back on itself and make the edge of the tart a double thickness. Press so that the edge is consistent around the tart pan. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

For the tart: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the melted butter and the applesauce. Spread the mixture into the bottom of the prepared crust. Arrange the apple slices around the outside of the tart, overlapping them like petals. Once you have gone around the outer edge, make another circle in the remaining open center (cut the apple slices in half, crosswise, if they are too large to fit). Sprinkle the top of the apples with the sugar. Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake in the center of the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until the apples are beginning to get browned on the edges and the crust is golden. Brush the apples immediately with the jam for a shiny glaze. Cool.

Serve straight-up or with a little vanilla ice cream and even a drizzle of salted butter caramel sauce.