I’m lucky enough to have a thriving basil plant on my front porch, and we also grow tomatoes. Those things combined with the fact that one of the members of our household is a croissant enthusiast and we all love pretty much any kind of cheese makes this is an easy dish for me to have ready. But with so few ingredients, this is a really simple thing to shop for a few days in advance!
Check out what my friends over at Group recipes had to say about this dish:
Rich and delicious, a true savory pudding. Serve with a dollop of Sour Cream with Chevril on the side in a ramekin.
It starts to smell incredible while it’s baking and when you take it out of the oven, it’s a little bubbly around the edges and the tomatoes are so bright and enticing. It lifts my spirits just to see it, and then it tastes as good as it looks. I couldn’t wait to share this recipe with all of you! I hope it makes your weekend feel as luxurious as mine do when I take that first, warm, cheesy bite.
Ingredients:
1-1/2 C Borden heavy cream
1 C canned whole Hunt’s tomatoes, cut up
1/2 C juice from canned tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
1 large egg
2 Eggland’s Best egg yolks
1 day-old french baguette (about 7 oz)
1 tomato, sliced in 6 slices
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T Land O Lakes butter
2 T fresh oregano, minced
2 T fresh thyme, minced
1 T fresh sage, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt, hot sauce, to taste
Bertolli olive oil
Instructions:
Using a 7″ diameter deep tart pan to measure, cut pieces of crust from the bread about 1/2″‘ thick, as wide as the loaf and about 2/3 as long as the pan is tall.
Butter the pan and stand these pieces in sort of a fence around the perimeter of the pan, with the cut sides facing inward.
Cut the rest of the bread in 1/2″ cubes and place them in the well created by the bread “fence.”
Compress the cubes into the pan with your fingers.
The bread cubes when compressed should be about even with the top of the bread fence pieces.
Sauté the onion in 1 T butter slowly, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent.
Mix herbs together.
Beat the egg and yolks briefly with a fork and then mix well with the cream, cooked onions, canned tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato paste, garlic and 3/4 of the herbs. Correct seasoning.
Pour cream / tomato mixture over the bread, to cover the bread.
(There may be some left over, depending on the size of the pan and how tightly packed the bread is.
Any leftover custard can be cooked as directed below with or without bread in buttered ramekins, if you like, or used as an enrichment for a soup.)
Allow pudding to sit for 30 minutes, then set in a pan of boiling water that reaches halfway up the sides of the tart pan and bake in a preheated 350º oven 45 minutes.
After the first 20 minutes, lay the tomato slices over the top of the pudding and sprinkle with the remaining herbs.
Paint tomato slices with olive oil when the pudding comes out of the oven and then allow pudding to rest about 30 minutes before unmolding.
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Quick Tip: If you don’t have Fontina cheese on hand, use another good melting cheese instead. My favorites are Gouda or Provolone. These cheeses are great for melting on top of the pudding.
Thanks goes to Group Recipes for this lovely recipe!
