Tomorrow would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday and this is my post to celebrate this amazing woman. Julia is an American food icon who literally taught American’s how to cook. She was one of the early “foodies” before Food Network was even a thought; even before most of the chefs on Food Network were born! She was the first celebrity chef!
My friend Betsy over at Bits and Breadcrumbs suggested that we post a recipe from a Julia Child cook book to commemorate and celebrate her life and I was all over it! Betsy posted a gorgeous Clafouti recipe that’s been her dear Mother’s favourite. I also wanted to post an authentic Julia Child recipe, but unlike Betsy, I don’t have one of her actual cookbooks. Last Christmas JT gave me Dorie Greenspans Baking with Julia, a wonderful cookbook of mainly sweets, breads and such. But I didn’t want to bake something sweet, so I searched and searched until I came across a gorgeous luncheon dish, a savoury galette. I was sold. Thanks Betsy, this was a lot of fun.
For the galette pastry, you can click here for a very similar recipe, or you can check page 371 in Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. I changed up the filling to suit our tastes and what I had in my pantry. It is an incredible crust, crispy and slightly sweet that can withstand even the wettest filling but it’s also not dry and crumbly. The cornmeal in the pastry recipe adds enough crunch to make it a little more interesting that a standard pasty. It’s really just perfect. In fact, so much so, I’ve had a special request to bake it again, believe it or not. 😉
I divided the pastry into two portions so that I could keep one galette and give the other away. Both were resounding successes. You can keep this very simple or make it a bit more complex as I did. You can serve this room temperature or right out of the oven or even reheated, it is amazing every-which way.
Savoury Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Caramelized Onion and Goats Cheese Galette
Serves 4-6, makes 2, 15 cm galettes
Ingredients:
- 4 Roma tomatoes (oven roasted in 1 cm slices) click here for the recipe
- 1/2 cup sweet onion confit
- 100g goats cheese
- 1 galette pastry
Directions:
- Prepare the pastry as indicated in the recipe. It needs to be refrigerated for a couple of hours, so you’ll want to plan ahead.
- Roll the galette on a piece of parchment into a circle about 10 cm larger than the size you want it to be. Spread the sweet onion confit on the bottom leaving the last 5 cm all the way around clear. Add a layer of tomatoes and dot with 1/2 of the total goats cheese.
- Fold up the edges and pleat or do some other fancy design. I wanted my galette rustic looking.
- Bake as the recipe indicate (I did our’s for 30 minutes at 176°C or 350°F) just until the crust was starting to get golden.
- Serve hot, warm or even at room temperature garnished with fresh basil and a little basil pesto drizzle.
Eva, I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read your post earlier this week. Your photos are gorgeous…and I love the filling that you put together for this. It’s on my list to make!
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Great tribute Eva – it looks absolutely amazing. I have such a weakness for anything wrapped in pastry and the goats cheese must have been the perfect finishing touch!
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I was unable to make something for Julia and was so hoping some of our food blogging community would be posting their contributions! I love your galette.. the flavors must have been so intense with fresh tomatoes.. the onion… I have to try this one as well!! xx
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Thanks Barbara, it was such a success that I’m making it again tonight to take for a girl’s weekend in the Muskoka’s!
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I can’t wait to try this Eva!
You said it was amazing but seeing the pictures..I can’t wait to try it..
heading over to check the crust
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Thank you kindly Sawsan, it was such a success I’m making another one tonight to take to a girl’s weekend tomorrow!
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[…] Eva of kitcheninspirations […]
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Hi Eva,
That looks so delicious! Good job I have already had supper or I would be cooking it right now!
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Thank you kindly GD.
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oh happy birthday indeed! Wow, I love a good galette- much easier than a tart and I prefer the more rustic look! Just amazing
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I do too Jessica, and this one behaved and turned out particularly well!
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Really, really beautiful Eva. Wait can a man say that?? 😉
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I think being the sports man guy glutton that you are Jed, it’s perfectly acceptable (unless you’re wearing pink panties, that is!)
Thank you!
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Fantastic galette Eva! I like your take on this dish!
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Thank you Amber.
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Those look amazing!
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Thank you kindly Greg.
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I must say, Eva, our Julia would have been happy to see your galettes.They look wonderful and with those ingredients, well, they couldn’t be anything short of delicious. Your pastry dough does sound perfect for these, well, that last photo says it all.
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Thank you kindly John. I’m making it again to take to a friend’s cottage on the weekend, it was pretty tasty.
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Lovely galettes and a fitting tribute to Julia, I must say! I just made squash and tomato galette last weekend…great minds, don’t you know? Thanks again for the shout out, Eva and so glad you had fun. Did you post on my FB page? I need to go and check, am running late today!
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I finally figured out how to post it to your page Betsy. Thanks again, it was quite fun.
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What an unusual dish! I mean the pastry part. I often prepare tarts with goat cheese and tomatoes, so no doubts about their wonderful combination. Lovely photos!
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That’s what attracted me to the recipe, Sissi, was the pastry. In all it’s unusualness, it worked out very well, holding its own even reheated after cooling down.
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Great idea and gorgeous photo!
Friend, neighbour and boss? That’s quite the combo. Kim must be awesome.
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I’m very fortunate, we have been friends for 21 years, she’s been a boss for about 8 and a neighbour for about 4! It’s funny but we can easily talk JT out of the room on a Friday night on one of our patios with a cocktail or two!
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lol. It’s easy to talk The Koala out of the room, but I know what you mean 🙂
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Great choice for a recipe, I’m working on one right now..feeling inspired by all of the Julia recipes going on right now. I love the last pic, so good it’s GONE!
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Thank you kindly Gerry and welcome to my blog. I’m looking forward to seeing your creation, you sure have a lovely blog.
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What a very elegant galette and an amazingly flavourful combination of ingredients. I can see adding sun-dried tomatoes instead of regular ones, if that wouldn’t make the filling too dry. And how about puff pastry instead? (I’m always thinking of ways to save work.) 🙂
Well, I’m off to the Indian grocery store to get some more tamarind.
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Hi Maria, the pastry was super easy to make, and it’s such a part of this tart, I don’t think I would substitute it. The sun-dried tomatoes would be fine, but I would use the one’s in oil. Roasted red peppers would also make an amazing substitution.
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This is a great dish to celebrate Julia’s birthday. I love the flavors here. I’ve never made a galette. I’m sure this is something Mike and I would really enjoy though. 🙂 And I got a ton of tomatoes from my grandparents this past weekend. Perfect!
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I’d love to hear what you thought of it if you do end up making it. Also, the crust is hearty enough that you need not roast the tomatoes (sadly the one’s I bought, although from Ontario, had no taste, so I had no choice).
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These savoury galette look divine!
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Thank you kindly Angie.
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Happy birthday Julia. What a delicious tribute.
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Thank you kindly Rutheh.
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This is a lovely tribute to Julia and what a stunning dish. I just love the look of it and what incredible flavours. No wonder there was none left! Can’t wait to make this myself xx
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Thanks Charlie, it was very tasty indeed. I’d love to hear what you thought of it.
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Wonderful tribute to Julia Child. What a gorgeous galette. You make it sounds so easy to make.
I will have to go to the farmers market to get a supply of Roma tomatoes so I can make a big batch of oven roasted tomatoes to keep in the freezer for this recipe.
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Thank you kindly.
Great idea to freeze them Norma; I’m going to do that this week. I usually do it on our BBQ do it doesn’t heat up the house.
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I’m so making this one night Eva! Perhaps when we get some lovely tomatoes back in season 🙂 Happy Birthday Julia Child 🙂
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Hi Lorraine, that is the beauty of oven roasting the tomatoes…they need not be in season to taste amazing. But if it’s the carbon footprint that is the issue (which it really should be) then roast a bunch in the summer when they are in season and freeze on a tray and transfer to a zip lock bag. Then you have delicious tomatoes all year round!
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What an absolutely gorgeous galette tribute to the wonderful foodie icon 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thanks CCU. It was not only gorgeous but delicious too!
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