I’m not one for following recipes. I scroll through Pinterest for inspiration and then make it up as I go based on whatever I have in the fridge. I’m also not one for buying ingredients for specific things but rather I’ll experiment with the staples I already have in the fridge.

Inspired by the beautiful tomatoes found this week at the farmers market and wanting to use up the pastry flour in the pantry, I decided to make a galette. After poking around a few blogs and looking at a couple of recipes, I had the basic idea and experimented from there. These free form pastries allow for a lot of creative freedom and are a great way to use up ingredients. I had a jar of artichoke hearts and ricotta cheese that were begging to be used with these tomatoes.

They are also really forgiving – the sloppier more rustic the edges the better!

Pastry:

• 1.5 cups of flour (I used pastry flour, but pretty much any flour will do)
• 1/2 cup butter – cold
• Heaping spoonful of ricotta cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• Parmesan (or something similar) cheese – a good handful should do

-Mix the cold butter and flour until crumbly.

-Stir in ricotta cheese, start with a little and add more if needed. I used the ricotta to replace the liquid and just kept adding a bit at a time until it formed a dough.

-Mix in salt, pepper and cheese and form a ball of dough

-Chill dough in fridge for at least half an hour

-Using a rolling pin (or an empty glass bottle) roll dough into about a 12 inch circle, no need to be perfect

-Put dough onto ungreased baking sheet. Use parchment paper if you feel like it, don’t use it if you don’t feel like it. This time I felt like it, most of the time I don’t.

Filling:

-Slice tomatoes (zucchini, eggplants squash, whatever you’re using)

-Lay slices on a towel and sprinkle with salt to draw out liquids (I put the dough in the fridge, then I sliced the tomatoes. By the time the dough was rolled out, the tomatoes were ready)

-In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup of ricotta with a good lug of olive oil and salt, pepper, garlic to taste

-Spread ricotta in the middle of dough, leaving about 2 inches of exposed dough around the edges.

-Layer your slices and whatever else you might be adding (in this case, artichokes) on top of the ricotta

-Fold extra dough towards the middle but leave the middle open

-Beat an egg and brush the egg over the dough – or skip this step. Whatevs, it will be good either way

-Bake at 400° for 30-40 minutes

Let sit for a while or if you’re a beast like me, dig in and then burn the hell out of your tongue. After you’ve chugged some water to soothe your mouth, the galette should be cool enough to slice and enjoy.

I’m calling bullshit on anyone who every says they can’t cook at home because their kitchen is too small!