Do you ever just look at your fridge full of random ingredients and think, “dear cooking gods above why did I think buying 10 different kind of vegetables was a good idea?”
Friend, same!
But I’m here to help you! Let me tell you about you the thing that'll save your life & cause the person you're dating to swear undying love to you.
Probably. (I'm not a goddess, so I can't promise, kay?)
This dinner saving recipe is called a ‘galette.’ It’s basically a mix between a tart and a pizza. No, really! The dough doesn’t require any leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder, but it does require butter.
If you don’t like butter maybe don’t make this.
Also I think we might not be able to be friends anymore.
You usually fill the center of the galette with fresh veggies and some kind of cheese. There’s typically not a sauce involved (like in pizza) although I guess you could if you wanted to, but you run the risk of it being too wet which means the bottom of the pie won’t get cooked/will be soggy.
But the veggie combinations you guys! If you can imagine it tasting good together, you can put it in a galette!
Leek and potato, broccoli and onion, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant…the list goes on! Cheese wise, you can use any kind of cheese too, as long as you think it’ll match the veggies you’re tossing in! That’s how amazing the galette is! Ricotta, cheddar, provolone, goat cheese, feta, you can use it all!
Normally a galette dough is rolled out to 14-16 inches because you’ll be using an inch and a half to fold the edges up over the filling. But I’m going to be experimenting with galettes size wise, as I’m sure I could make mini/handheld ones that don’t require slicing it up!
The galette is great for a relatively quick dinner in terms of making it—make the dough, prepare the filling, bake it! Easy peasy! But baking takes about 45 to 50 minutes.
Don’t do what I did my first time and take it out after 40 minutes. The underside of the crust didn’t bake all the way through. Oops.
Another thing to watch out for? Where you prepare it.
After you make your dough and roll it out to the size you want put it immediately onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Why do I give you this warning in over the top bold and italicized font?
Because I made the horrific mistake of rolling it out on the roll pad, filling it, and then realizing it was too heavy to lift or move to the baking pan.
THE HORROR.
After a mini melt down I managed to drag it carefully to the freezer, let it sit for 10 minutes (15 would’ve been better) and then transfer it to the pan.
Or in my case, literally chuck it onto the tray.
It was chuck it or watch it tear in half along with my hopes and dreams.
But my first galette survived my beginners mistakes and I lived to tell the tale (and warn you all).
If I hadn’t made the mistake of filling it on the pan, this dish would’ve been done so fast.
There are 9 million recipes because the filling is easy and extremely forgiving! You can also make this a dessert dish by adding sugar to the dough and using fruit instead of veggies but I’m sure the French (who invented this dish, hence it’s French name) call a fruit galette something different that sounds nothing like how it’s spelled.
So here’s my recipe for a tomato goat cheese galette! It’s a recipe I made after tweaking several other recipes to eventually land on being it’s own thing and if you need more combo inspirations that’s what google or an adventurous trip to your fridge is for.
You can pair this galette with a salad and soup too, as I did!
You also don't have to use the parmesan-reggiano cheese in the crust if you don't want to.
But you really, really should.
Once you make a galette you'll make them ALL. THE. TIME.
In fact, it'll probably be something you make once a week and become famous for or something.
Just saying.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The thing that makes this crust so yummy and flaky is butter. A fast hack is to throw your butter into the freezer, let it freeze, and then use a cheese grater to grate it into the flour. It makes perfectly even sized butter pieces that distributes evenly with just a toss of your spoon!
Always keep a stick or two of butter in your freezer, friends!
TOMATO & GOAT CHEESE GALETTE
Ingredients
-2 Cups Flour
-1 ½ Sticks Butter
-1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan-Reggiano
-1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Cup Ice cold water
-2-3 Large slicing tomatoes (or a pint or two of cherry tomatoes cut in half)
-6-8 Oz. Herbed Goat Cheese (or plain)
-Fresh herbs of choice
-1 Egg + 1 tablespoon water
-Everything Bagel Seasoning (if desired)
Directions:
-Combine and stir the 2 cups of flower, salt, and parmesan-reggiano.
-Use a cheese grater to grate the 1 ½ sticks of butter into the flour, stirring every so often to coat the butter as you go.
-Pour in 3 tablespoons of ice water and stir (or be like me and use your hands instead). Add in more water as needed until the dough sticks together. If it feels too wet/sticky add in a bit more flour. This dough should not be sticky though! Hence adding in a tablespoon at a time.
-Form a ball, flatten it a little into a thick disk, and set in the fridge for 20 minutes (or the freezer for 12 minutes)
-Preheat your oven to 400F (204 Celsius)
-Slice up your tomatoes, crumble up your goat cheese, whisk the egg in a separate bowl & set aside.
-Roll out your dough to 14-16 inches
-Transfer the rolled dough onto a parchment lined baking tray
-Leaving the outer 1 ½ inches untouched, fill the center with the cheese and fresh herbs. I used basil, thyme, and oregano from my garden.
-Layer on the tomatoes and drizzle with good olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.
-Fold the pie edges towards the center of the galette, pleating it if you wanna be fancy like me or wanna impress your date with your gourmet skills.
-Brush the crust with egg wash and generously sprinkle on the Everything Bagel seasoning if you wish to (you do wish to. Trust me.)
-Pop in the over for 35 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
-Once out of the oven sprinkle on some fresh julienned basil leaves and you’re good to go after few minutes of cool down time!