I went to a dinner party a while ago at a good friend’s house.  When she called to invite us, she immediately said, “I know you don’t like tomatoes, but I am making Tomato Tart Tatin for dessert, and you have to try it because I really think you will love it.” I realize that I need to give tomatoes another try since my dislike of them stems from a long ago childhood memory of my aunt’s wedding weekend.  Her soon to be niece was my age (we were 4 or 5 at the time), and we were going to be flower girls together, and so my mother and aunt arranged a pool play date for her soon to be niece and myself.  My co-flower girl was not that strong of a swimmer at the time and apparently I was swinging on a towel bar and kicked her (by accident!!)  into the pool – the shallow end- where she could touch- and she was fine.  But of course my mother, aunt and her mother all jumped into the pool fully clothed to help her out, and I was not the most popular person at the party.  After everything quieted down, they served tomato sandwiches for lunch.  My mother knowing that I was a particularly picky eater gave me the look that saying anything about not liking the sandwiches was not an option.  I think I ate 4 or 5 triangles of tomato sandwich saying they were the best thing ever- hoping that my mother would not be too mad at me on the car ride home.  Anyway- I survived and my aunt’s wedding was spectacular, and I have nothing but amazing memories of it except for swearing off tomatoes from then on.  I love tomato sauce and ketchup and really all variations of tomatoes except for eating them in their original form.  Until my friend’s dinner party.  I don’t remember what she cooked for dinner except that I am sure it was fabulous, but the Tomato Tart Tatin was really divine.  As my friend said, “I often forget my favorite vegetable is a fruit.”  The tart was so sweet and delicious and such an unusual but spectacular choice to finish off a dinner party.  She got the recipe from Bon Appetit at http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/08/tomato_tarte_tatin.  So unique and so wonderful!!

Tomato Tart Tatin

Ingredients:

1 3/4 pounds plum tomatoes (8 large)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed, corners cut off to make very rough 9- to 10-inch round
Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Bring large saucepan of water to boil. Cut shallow X in bottom of each tomato. Add 4 tomatoes to boiling water. Blanch tomatoes just until skins at X begin to peel back, 15 to 30 seconds. Using slotted spoon, transfer blanched tomatoes to bowl of ice water to cool quickly. Repeat with remaining tomatoes. Peel tomatoes. Cut out cores, halve lengthwise, and remove seeds.
Spread butter over bottom of 91/2-inch-diameter, 2- to 3-inch-deep ovenproof skillet (preferably cast-iron). Sprinkle 3/4 cup sugar over butter. Arrange tomato halves, rounded side down and close together, in concentric circles in skillet to fill completely.
Place skillet over medium heat. Cook until sugar and butter are reduced to thickly bubbling, deep amber syrup (about 1/4 inch deep in bottom of skillet), moving tomatoes occasionally to prevent burning, about 25 minutes. Remove skillet from heat. Immediately drizzle vanilla over tomatoes. Top with pastry round. Using knife, tuck in edges of pastry. Cut 2 or 3 small slits in pastry. Place skillet in oven and bake tart until pastry is deep golden brown, about 24 minutes.
Cool tart in skillet 10 minutes. Cut around sides of skillet to loosen pastry. Place large platter over skillet. Using oven mitts as aid, hold skillet and platter firmly together and invert, allowing tart to settle onto platter. Carefully lift off skillet. Rearrange any tomato halves that may have become dislodged.
Serve tart warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.