Tomato Tart
....with enough leftovers for breakfast!

On the menu this week was a tomato sausage tart that our oldest daughter used to make. I believe it was originally a 4-H cooking project. I no longer remember the recipe but then, as you know if you've read my blog, I don't use recipes so this was not a problem!

I had gotten, much to my dismay, an eggplant in our co/op Italian pack. Both my husband and I have always disliked the vegetable. I have cooked it every way I can think of and we've never liked it. Not wanting to just chop it up for the chickens I became desperate and did the unthinkable. I looked for recipes! Not finding anything out of the ordinary and not having the ingredients for anything else that sounded different, I decided on one from a Vegetarian Cooking book my husband got me. No, we aren't vegans, but do love vegetables.
So, earlier in the week I dredged thin slices of raw eggplant with some spices---no, I didn't follow the recipe but just had fun with the idea of what to do with it.  We had it with a salad dinner and mug of leftover soup. When I went into the kitchen to do the dishes I noticed we had only eaten about half of the egg plant. I had planned the tart but hated to make crust, so I laid the cooked pieces of coated eggplant in the bottom of a pie plate. When it came time to make the tart, and after I found our natural food store was out, again, of their natural sausage, I had to tweak what I remembered of the recipe. This lends itself to creative cooking quite easily. Just use what you have on hand and enjoy!
Here is what I did:

Eggplant, Tomato Tart

• Place coated fried egg plant slices in bottom of pie plate.Fill entire bottom single depth but
  slightly overlapping. I used leftover eggplant but you can start with this.
• Slice tomatoes thinly and place on top of egg plant and sprinkle with dry basil and granulated garlic
• Saute onion rounds and slices of mushrooms in pan with olive oil
• Place above mixture onto tomatoes along with its carmelized juices
• Slice or just crumble black olives on top of mushrooms and onions
• Sprinkle very lightly with balsamic salad dressing or with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar
  I used my homemade dressing which was gone except for the spices and Parmesan at the
  very bottom of the container.
• Grate natural cheese of choice on top (I crumbled leftover previously-frozen cheddar) 
• Bake at about 400 degrees until cheese is bubbly and you can see liquid from the veggies
  bubbling on the bottom. 
• Leave to cool and set up for a couple minutes

It is delicious, very savory and even better if you have added natural sausage to it. I served it with an Italian salad I made and with a fresh batch of my salad dressing. There is enough leftover to be filling for omelettes for a nice Saturday morning breakfast!

Have a great rest of the weekend!