InstaRecipe: Savory Farewell To Summer Tart

By Julia Weeman in Food on Sep 21, 2014 6:00PM

Photo via @jjuliaa on Instagram

Last week's cooler temperatures are a reminder that the beginning of fall is upon us, and had me craving heartier comfort food. Namely, butter and béchamel. I found myself with an abundance of beautiful late summer produce—leeks, summer squash, and zucchini. I decided to whip up a lovely savory tart with a touch of the richness fall tends to bring. All the ingredients can be prepared in advance, chilled, and assembled when you're ready, making it an easy dish to accompany a salad for an elegant lunch or a roast chicken for a feast of a dinner. I make it using my favorite all butter pie crust recipe, linked below and Julia Child's recipe for béchamel, which I've edited slightly and included here.

Savory Farewell To Summer Tart

Ingredients
1 prepared single pie crust (I use this recipe)
5 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme
2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium zucchini
1 medium summer squash
2 medium leeks

Method
Prepare the pie crust and refrigerate until very cold (at least one hour).

Melt the leeks: Remove dark green ends of the leeks and slice the white and light green portion into thin rounds. Rinse throughly in a bowl of cool water and drain. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saute pan over low heat and add the leeks, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes until the leeks are very soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let cool and refrigerate.

Prepare the béchamel: Heat the milk to a boil with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan and keep warm. Using a heavy bottomed 6 cup saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over low heat. Stir in the flour, cooking slowly until the butter and flour froth together for 2 minutes without browning to form a white roux. Remove from heat and pour in the hot milk, beating vigorously to blend and incorporating all bits of roux from the inside edges of the pan. Return saucepan to moderately high heat and whisk until the sauce comes to a boil. Continue to whisk for one minute, then remove from heat. Add salt and pepper (white pepper if you have it) to taste and stir in the thyme. Let cool and refrigerate.

Par-cook the squash: Slice the zucchini and summer squash into 1/8 inch rounds. A mandoline is ideal for this task. In a saute pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium low heat. Add garlic and cook for 5 minutes until soft and fragrant. Add squash rounds and cook on medium head 5-7 minutes or until slightly softened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let cool and refrigerate.

At this point, you may refrigerate all the components of this tart until you are ready to proceed. If you would like to proceed immediately, it is best to let the components cool to room temperature before assembling the tart.

Assemble the tart: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Roll out the pie crust and fit into a 10 inch nonstick tart pan with removable ring, trimming excess dough. Top with leeks, evenly covering the bottom of the tart. Layer 1/2 of the thyme infused béchamel over the leeks. Add 1/2 of the squash and top with the remaining béchamel. Arrange remaining squash and bake until the béchamel is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.