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Tomato Saffron tart with crabmeat

Tomato, Saffron and Crab Tart

A creamy saffron custard filled with rich crabmeat sits on top of a thick, intense tomato purée, all inside a buttery pastry shell.  Perfect for a first course, or as dinner with a side salad.

Course Main Course
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 45 minutes
Resting time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

Pastry Shell

  • 2 cups AP flour plus more for dusting
  • 1 1/4 sticks chilled unsalted butter chopped into rough cubes
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 medium egg yolk

Filling

  • 4 medium to large Roma or plum tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion minced
  • 2 medium cloves garlic minced
  • sea salt and cracked black pepper
  • pinch of superfine granulated sugar
  • 1 cup heavy or whipping cream
  • generous pinch of saffron threads
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche
  • 1 large egg plus 3 egg yolks
  • 7 oz fresh lump crab meat
  • 1 1/2 oz fresh claw crab meat
  • 13-14 cherry or grape tomatoes 5-7 small to medium sized basil or mint leaves, optional garnish

Instructions

Pastry Shell

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a food processor and whiz until it looks like large bread crumbs or oatmeal.
  2. Mix the yolk with 1/2 tbsp of very cold water. Add it to the flour and whiz again. This time, keep pulsing until the mixture almost comes together.
  3. Dump it onto the counter and use your hands to grab all the remaining bits to form a ball. Work it once or twice till it is a smooth ball. Press the ball down into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. (you can do this the day before)
  4. When ready to bake off, bring out to room temperature and roll it to fit into a 9 inch loose bottomed tart pan. Prick the bottom with a fork, and return it to the fridge or freezer till firm.
  5. Pre-heat the oven to 350F and place a metal baking sheet into the oven on a rack set into the lower third of the oven.
  6. Line the pastry shell with parchment paper and fill it all with dried beans or weights. Place it onto the hot baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes, removing the paper and weights after the first 7 minutes.
  7. Remove and let cool. You can also prepare up to here the morning of or even the evening before.

Filling

  1. Cut a small x into the tip of each tomato. Plunge the tomatoes into boiling ater and leave them there for 20 seconds. Skin them by lifting the skin from the loose skin from the x and peel back.
  2. Halve, seed, and cut the flesh into thin slivers.
  3. Heat the butter and olive oil in a skillet and cook the onion and tomatoes gently until soft but not coloured.
  4. Add the garlic, season with salt and pepper (start with 1/2 tsp of each)
  5. Continue to cook until it has turned into a thick purée. Taste. If the tomatoes didn't have the best flavour to begin with, a bit of sugar will help. The purée should be dry, not at all wet or watery. Spoon it into the cooled tart shell.
  6. Put about 3 tbsp of the heavy cream into a saucepan and add the saffron threads. Heat until just under boiling. Then stir until you can see the saffron colouring the cream. Let it cool.
  7. Mix this with the rest of the heavy cream, the crème fraîche, egg and egg yolks. Season well with salt and pepper. Start with 1/2 tsp of each and then taste.
  8. Gently stir in the crab meat.
  9. Slowly pour this over the tomato purée.
  10. Make sure the oven rack is now in the centre of the oven. And return the baking sheet ot the oven to warm up again.
  11. Return the tart to the hot baking sheet and cook for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is just set in the middle. It should still have a little give or jiggle in just the middle, as it will continue to cook outside the oven.
  12. Let it cool for 15 minutes on a cooling rack, and then remove from the tart pan.

  13. Optional: Garnish with sliced cherry or grape tomatoes, and basil or mint leaves

  14. Serve it with a green salad.

Recipe Notes

You can prepare the tart shell, the tomato purée and even the custard and crabmeat all the day before. The tomato and custard can be stored in the fridge. While the oven is warming up, you can take everything out to come to room temperature. Assemble and bake. Save the egg whites for an omelette, or my Forgotten Cookies. I say that it serves 6. This is as a main meal. It will serve 8 as a first course. If baked in an oblong tart pan it will slice into lovely personal pieces.