Few ingredients have such an attractive look and so many uses as the almost magical tomato. Raw, cooked, dried or tinned, the various incarnations of this humble yet wonderful fruit open up an infinite world for any cook. To make this lovely summery snack or starter, try to get hold of a decent mix of ripe tomatoes of varying colour and size. I've made my tart with puff pastry, though you can also use pizza dough. Made with puff, it's best served warmish or at room temperature. Serves four.
375g all-butter puff pastry
8 stalks fresh oregano, leaves picked and roughly chopped
100g goat's cheese, crumbled
450g red, yellow or green tomatoes of various sizes, sliced 2mm thick
8 stalks fresh thyme
Olive oil
For the sundried tomato paste
10 sun-dried tomatoes from a jar
1 fresh red chilli, sliced
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick and cut out four rectangles about 10cm x 15cm. (Alternatively, if you have a large enough baking sheet, roll out the pastry into one circle, like a big pizza.) Transfer the pastry rectangles to a large baking sheet lined with baking paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the sun-dried tomato paste. Put all the ingredients in the small bowl of a food processor and process to a rough paste; if necessary, add a little oil from the tomato jar to bring it together. If your food processor bowl is too large, you may need to do some of the chopping by hand.
Spread a thin layer of the tomato paste over the chilled pastry, leaving a border about 1cm from the edge. Sprinkle with the oregano and goat's cheese, and arrange the tomatoes on top, slightly overlapping but not too precisely. Make sure the tomato paste is covered by fresh tomatoes because it tends to burn. Drop the thyme stalks over the tomatoes and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Bake for 15 minutes, until golden on top; check the base to make sure the pastry is brown and fully cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before drizzling over more olive oil and serving warm.