Rustic Fruit Tart

Leftovers are great the next day. Who hasn't enjoyed a reheated bowl of Chinese take-out fried rice more the day after? Leftover fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, can pose a problem or they can become an opportunity to use our creativity. That's what I opted to do recently--use my creativity! I had two smallish fennel bulbs that I'd used part of but wasn't sure what to do with them beyond my initial use. I also had cherries that no one seemed to be interested in, and the blood oranges that I'd saved for a salad were looking underappreciated. 

This is what I did. I made a pie.

You can call it a pie, but it’s not baked in a pie plate. You can call it a galette, but it's not that exactly, so I've opted to call it a rustic tart (which is another way of saying galette when you don't want to say galette).

Neither the blood oranges nor the cherries are especially sweet, so this turned into my favorite kind of dessert--a little bit sweet, fragrant and a teeny bit salty. But don't worry, if you like the sweetness level turned up, dust the whole thing with powdered sugar when it comes out of the oven to give you more of what you're looking for.

I also had sliced bread to use up, so I made fresh breadcrumbs, mixed them up with almond flour, sugar, melted butter and used that as a crumble to collect the fruit juices. Then I added sesame seeds to the remaining crumble and browned it to use on top of the ice-cream that goes on top of the tart. Good heavens, it was especially good!

For a printable recipe, click here.

Essentially, one pie crust goes on a sheet pan. You put most of the crumble on the bottom, add a layer of fruits, more crumble, etc. Fold up the sides. Use the second crust to make the strips for the latticework, egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and sesame seeds. In the oven. Out of the oven. Dust with powdered sugar and served with good vanilla ice-cream and the toasted crumble on top.