Vegetables getting all tarted up

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Chef Armando Esquivel's Vidalia Onion Tart at Glenview's Zingarella Cafe. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media

Onion Tart

(From Zingarella)

Makes 6 4-inch tarts

1 package of puff pastry sheets

2 Vidalia onions, thinly sliced

1 tomato, diced

2 ounces goat cheese

3 ounces heavy cream

1 egg

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh herbs of your choice, finely chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cut puff pastry sheets in circles and press into tart pan. Sauté onions in olive oil until translucent, add tomatoes and sauté one minute more. Add goat cheese and herbs to pan and stir to dissolve. Take off heat and let mixture cool to room temperature. Use fork to mix heavy cream and egg together and then add to onion mixture. Spoon mixture into tart shells and bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Take cooled tarts out of pan. Serve reheated or at room temperature.

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Updated: September 30, 2011 10:41AM

Alors! Julia Child’s beloved pet project, the classic open face fruit pie, glorified by her and now known to all as la tarte tatin, is being left in the competitive flour dust by new tart varieties. Modern chefs are thinking outside the apple basket, making tarts with eggplant, potato and other surprising ingredients. Port wine is even featured in one recipe.

Saul Maya, head chef at Il Poggiolo, an Italian restaurant housed in a former silent movie theater in downtown Hinsdale, dresses up his tortino di fichli (fig tart) with a port wine cream sauce that is as decadent as the fig-loaded tart.

“Because of the port, it is richer than other cream sauces,” said Anthony Romanazzi, a manager and server at Il Poggiolo.

Tarted up veg

Ann Heinz and Kate Rooney, the two ladies at the helm of Three Tarts Bakery and Café in Northfield, make unexpected tart varieties like eggplant and tomato, salmon and dill; and roasted potato and mushroom.

“It might seem like carbs on carbs,” Heinz said of the potato tarts. “But because of the butter flavor in the crust, they are just delicious.”

One starchy combination, and one anticipated to appear on their menu into colder months, is potato, parsley and Swiss cheese. Heinz and Rooney take special orders from their long list of other such tarts, and offer one or two types each week in their bakery and café.

Like some versions of the classic tarte tatin, pears are featured in an onion tart at Zingarella in Glenview. Zingarella chef Armando Esquivel tops his tarts with thin slices of honey-roasted pears and hearts of palm. He serves the tart with greens dressed in tangy Dijon vinaigrette and a little sweet balsamic reduction.

“I continued a sweet-tart idea throughout the entire dish,’’ Esquivel said. “All of these opposing flavors come together and just work.”

Gift to savor

The onion tart was inspired by a gift from Esquivel’s friend.

“I created the recipe while thinking about what to do with two large bags of Vidalia onions. Someone brought them to me as a gift from their travels south,” he explained. “I was already making a Mediterranean tart with tomatoes, olives and eggplant. At first, I thought I would just add the onions, but after I caramelized the onions and tasted their intense sweet flavor, I knew they should be the focus of the dish. I made the tarts with only the sweet onions, added a little goat cheese to balance the sweet-tart flavor profile, and went with it.”

A literary tart

Esquivel’s Vidalia onion tart was a “feature dish” at a recent meeting of Zingarella’s Culinary Book Club, which has some 90 members. The classic French tart was served during a discussion of Five Quarters of the Orange (Black Swan, 2002), a book about a mother struggling to provide wholesome and delicious meals for her children despite food scarcity during the German occupation of France during World War II.

“The book club participants loved the tart and all wanted the recipe. In fact, one member ordered them in a mini-size for her July 4th picnic,” Zingarella owner Bonnie Bock recalled.

C’est dommage (this is all too bad) for la tarte tatin. Even though apple tart, tortino di mele, still tops the desserts list at eateries like Il Poggiolo.

But what would Julia say about the more unexpected, modern tarts?

Undoubtedly, she would sing out her signature cry: Bon appétit!