Melissa’s Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin is a ⭐ Five Star ⭐ Recipe Perfect For Summer | NYT Cooking

“I hate peeling peaches,
tomatoes, fava beans. Bananas are O.K. Once I worked
with a chef who had me peel — Wait for it — peas. He said people who don’t peel
peas are not nice people. I’m like, I’m nice. I just don’t peel peas.” [BANJO PLAYING] “Hi, I’m Melissa Clark. I’m a food columnist and
reporter for the ‘New York Times’ and ‘NYT Cooking.’ And
I’m here in the beautiful NYT Cooking studio kitchen to make
a caramelized tomato tarte Tatin because it’s summer
and the tomatoes are gorgeous And it is just
a lovely pastry. Tarte tatin is a traditional
French pastry, usually made With apples. You make a caramel on
the bottom of a skillet, You put your apples, then you
put some puff pastry on top And you bake it. And then you turn it over, and
you have this gorgeous apple Tart that’s really
easy to make. So what I did in
this recipe was Substitute cute little cherry
tomatoes for the apples. I still use a
caramel and I also Add Kalamata olives, which
make it just briny and salty. And I also add caramelized
onions, which have, Like, a sweet, savory flavor. It is beautiful. It is so summery. It’s exactly the thing to
do when you want, like, A showstopping — I mean, I would eat
it as a dinner entree. I mean, it’s very
substantial — Or as an appetizer or just
because you want to eat Something gorgeous.”

[BANJO PLAYING] “I have some all butter
puff pastry here. If you can find the stuff
made with all butter, It is really much better
than the non butter. However, either one will work. If you want to just use a
regular pie crust for this, That works too. It doesn’t get puffy, but it
gets golden brown and flaky, And it’s really good. And I have done that with
a homemade pie dough. If you ever have homemade
pie dough hanging out In your freezer, this is
a great place to use it. So I want to cut it into a
cap that’s going to fit on top Of the pan just on the inside. All skillets are a
little bit different. So even if this is a 9 inch
skillet or maybe it’s a 10 Inch skillet, depending
on where you measure it, It’s very frustrating that
they are not standard. The way to get this to work
best is just to measure it And then you can
measure the pastry. Yeah, see, this is 10 and a
half inches And on the bottom, This is 7 inches. What size skillet is it? Somewhere between 7 — I would call this a 9 inch. Maybe it’s a 10 inch. Anyway, use whatever
skillet you have. Just measure it. We know this is 10
and a half inches, So I’m going to
make this 10 inches. I’m going to cut
this from the middle. I’m marking it. Here’s another thing. You don’t have to worry
about being exact.

If it’s a little bit too
big, you just tuck it under. And if it’s a little
bit too small, It’s not going to matter
because when you flip it over, No one is going to see it. And then cut it into
an approximate circle.” [JAZZ MUSIC] “Never throw out your scraps. I’m going to put this
back in the freezer. I’m not going to
use it right now. But if I wanted to, I would
probably make cheese straws Out of this. I’m just going to put this
whole thing in the fridge Right now. You want to keep it cold
because if it gets too warm, It will stick to this cutting
board and then you will never Get it off and you’ll be sad.” [JAZZ MUSIC] “In this bowl I have three
large red onions that have Been sliced. We have done this ahead, so
you don’t have to watch me cry When I do it in front of you. Red onions are great
because they’re very sweet. You could also use
regular onions, White onions, Spanish onions. It doesn’t matter. Once you caramelize them,
you’re not going to taste A huge difference. But I do think that the red
ones are slightly sweeter. A little bit of butter. Let’s do a little
viewers poll. Is this a lot of butter
or a little butter? To me, this is just a
little bit of butter. But maybe people out there
think it’s a lot of butter. You think it’s
a lot of butter?

Mom thinks it’s
a lot of butter. I mean, we all love butter. And whenever you cook
anything in melted butter, You want to wait for
the foam to subside. Because then you
know the butter Is going to be hot enough. So see all that white foam? We’re going to heat the
butter until the foam starts To dissipate. There you go. And look, it’s starting to
get a little bit golden. We’re getting like a
slight brown butter action. That’s great. Extra flavor.” [SIZZLING] “O.K. I’m going to lower
the heat to medium. I’m adding just
a pinch of sugar, And this is just
to help the color. It’s going to make it
a little bit browner. This is going to take 15 to
20 minutes for the onions To really cook down. If you can see, I’m actually
already starting to get some Nice color on these. And now would be a good time,
if you haven’t, I don’t know, Rinsed your tomatoes
or call your mom — Do something nice for you
in the next 15 minutes. Pay attention. If you start to smell
something that smells too Brown, you know it’s time
to turn down the heat. Don’t stand here like this. This is bad. O.K., I’m going away. So you see how
that is starting To brown at the
edges of the pan,

Probably because I
turned it up too high? You add just a little
bit of water to the pan, It deglazes it and it
helps the onions cook.” [JAZZ MUSIC, SIZZLING]: “O.K. This is what
we are looking for. Look at how beautiful that is. The onions are very
soft and floppy. They haven’t cooked
down to a jam. They’re still onions, but they
just have this beautiful brown Color and a nice,
silky texture. All that brown stuff on the
bottom of the pan is now Absorbed into the onions, and
that’s where the flavor is. So that’s great.” [JAZZ MUSIC] “And these can just hang out
while we make the caramel. But before I do that, I
am going to wash this out Because I want to start with
a clean pan for the caramel. Look how pretty all this is. Some seriously
pretty mise en place. You don’t have to
use a mix of colors. You can use all one color
tomato, whatever you have. But I mean, this is
very, very charismatic. And also, I need to point
out this little dude. Look how cute. Little itty bitty tomato. Like a little jelly bean. Let’s make caramel. Heat is going to be on medium. I like to use the wet method. So I’m combining sugar
and water in the skillet At the same time. If I just use
sugar in this pan And let it melt
and caramelize, It would be a
little bit faster.

But it would also be a little
bit riskier because you could Get little sugar crystals. It’s harder to control it. It goes faster. What I’m doing is melting
all the sugar crystals In the water, and then I’m
evaporating off the water. So it takes a
little more time. It’s like an insurance policy
if you are nervous about Caramel, which I guess I am a
little nervous about caramel Even though I made
caramel all the time. I just like the wet method. You see how the sugar
is turning to syrup? That’s a sugar. And then as I
swirl it, it melts. I find this very satisfying. One little corner over
here doesn’t want to melt. So now that it’s all melted,
I’m just going to let it hang Out and I’m going to swirl
the pan every once in a while. Swirling the pan helps mix
the sugar syrup so that it Caramelizes evenly and
you don’t get dark spots. Should you start to see
any kind of crystallization Or burning, you
can immediately Pick it up and just go,
choop, choop, choop. This is cool. As you’re watching it, can
you see that the bubbles are Bigger and almost slower? They’re more viscous because
as the water is evaporating From the sugar syrup,
it is getting thicker. Don’t try to do this
in a really dark pan. It’s just harder to see
the color of the caramel. So this is just a warning. See how it’s browning
around the edges and not In the center? That is why we
want to swirl it.

I can smell that it’s
turning into caramel. Look at that color. O.K., so we have
caramel right now. This is a very light caramel. The lighter your caramel,
the sweeter it is. The darker your caramel,
the less sweet it is. As the sugar caramelizes,
it loses its sweetness, It gets more of
a toasty taste. So this is the color I want. I’m turning off the heat. What color is that? Is it the color of
an Irish setter?” [DOG BARK] “Do I love to say that? Yes, I do. And when it gets to be perfect
color, it’s off the heat. It’s cooking in the residual
little heat of the pan And stop the cooking with
a little bit of vinegar. It cools it down
immediately and it also Tames the sweetness. Look at that. Kalamata olives. You could use any
kind of olives. You want to pit them
because you’re nice. And then now I’m going to
add my beautiful tomatoes.” [SIZZLING] “Look at that. So your hand’s your
best bet for the onions. If you just want to
scatter them and make sure You get a nice, even
distribution of onions. I’m just going to move this. The burner is very hot. You want to just
cover all the tomatoes With onions like that.

Just a little bit of
salt, maybe a little more Salt, some pepper,
and thyme leaves. These are really nice. It just gives it a
lovely, fresh flavor. You know what else
would be good on this? Anchovies. Chopped up anchovies
mixed into that onion. Oh my god. That would be amazing. O.K., I’m going to get the
pastry to put on top of this. I love a giant fridge. I do not have one at home. So all I’m going to do is
just lay this right on top, And I’m going to tuck
it in around the edges. And again, don’t forget, no
one is going to see this part, So you don’t have
to worry too much. And now I’m going to
score the top of this, And that’s just to let the
steam out while this is Baking. Yeah. My oven has been
preheated to 425. So you always want
to do that before you Start because this thing
comes together pretty quickly. And I’m going to
pop it in the oven.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Oh, beautiful.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “The moment of truth. Is it going to come
out of the pan? Now, I know this is
the scariest part. It looks more
intimidating than it is. As long as you don’t let
this get completely cool, It’s not going to glue itself
onto the bottom of the pan. And then before you
even do anything,

Take a little knife
or an offset spatula And go around the
sides just to make Sure to loosen the pastry. You can see it kind of moving. This is a good sign
because if it moves, It is obviously not stuck. Bravery. Take your plate. Put it upside down. Who doesn’t love the
big blue oven mitts? All right. So hold it from both
sides like that.” [LOW YELL] “I’m going to get a smaller
plate because it’s just easier To hold. Makes everybody less nervous. Yeah, see, this is easy. Then you can just
hold it like this. And a 1, and a 2, and a 3. Wee!” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Voila. Oh my god, it’s perfect.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “This is definitely best warm,
but it’s also good at room Temperature. So if you want to make
it earlier in the day, Unmold it while it’s warm and
serve it a couple of hours Later. It holds up really well. It also reheats well.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Get all the little bits. Deliciously messy.

I’m so excited to eat this.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “It’s so good. I mean, the tomatoes
are amazing. But to me, the best
part is the combination Of the sweet, sweet,
caramelized onions And the olives. Like, that salty
with the sweet, And then you just have the
juiciness of the tomatoes, And, of course,
the buttery crust. It’s so good, you guys. You got to make this. Please make this. Find the recipe
at nytcooking.com, And then leave a
comment and let Us know how it
came out because we Want to hear from you. And that is all. I’m going to finish
this slice right now. Bye.” [MUSIC PLAYING]