Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Ratatouille Tart ~ page 98

This fun tart has all my favorite roasted vegetable flavors--eggplant, zucchini, tomato, and basil. It seemed like it took a long time to make, as I had keep going back to read directions. But after you have done this once, you can almost do it from memory.

The recipe called for a tart pan with a removable bottom...but I just had a spring-form pan, like for cheesecake...so I used that, and it worked just fine. This is the crust pressed into the pan bottom.

I had to show off my pie weights--I bought them a year or more ago, and this was my first time I have actually had a chance to used them!

I think these long skinny eggplant work wonderful in this recipe.

Here it is out of the oven...

The flavor and appearance of the tart are wonderful. I do have an issue with the crust though...it was dry, soft, and not that tasty I thought. I believe you just need more fat than what this calls for, in order to make a good crisp and tasty crust. Next time, I will use my own pressed butter pie crust recipe, but perhaps substitute some cornmeal like this recipe has for crunch. Except for the crust though--I really like this recipe! I served this as our Saturday light lunch. My husband says he would like just a bit more cheese next time.

Cowboy Calzone (with PW pizza crust)

These turned out really well, I thought, though we decided the pizza crust was too "wheat-y." I made the pizza crust with 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 whole-wheat flour, so they were thicker than regular pizza crust. I've never had success with homemade pizza crusts, so I was pleased that this worked out so well. Next time I think I would just follow her recipe and it would be perfect.

James says that PW uses a lot of ground beef. It was hearty, but I liked how filling and easy to make it was. I ran out of pizza dough before I ran out of filling, so I had to freeze a large portion of the meat and cheese mixture. I bet you could make a bunch of these ahead of time, freeze them, and then just cook the amount you needed.