September is not just “La Rentrée”, a rather depressing French word which means back to school & back to work after the summer holidays , it is also harvesting time, a perfect excuse for celebrating and experimenting with new season recipes.
While European wine producers prepare to make the next vintage and pray for sunny “vendanges”(wine harvest), here in London, I am enjoying the abundant crop of fruit and vegetables growing in containers on my small terrace. Thanks to some warm weather in the first half of summer (and despite the wind and rain of August, should I add), it is a bumper crop this year – over 50 delicious tomatoes and dozens of sweet peppers, all superior in taste and flavour to supermarket varieties and much cheaper too.
Apart from using them in salads, sauces and serving them as an anti-pasti, what can you make with tomatoes and sweet peppers? My abundant crop has inspired me to dig out an old recipe, still to be found hand-written in my first cookery notebook, between my grand-father’s Béarnaise Sauce and my grand-mother’s cheese soufflé - Pizza Gratinée. This recipe was given to me by the aunt of a childhood friend – a lady who used to work as a cook for wealthy families holidaying in the beautiful villas of the Normandy coast.
Actually, in this case, the word Pizza is rather misleading, it is much more a savoury, vegetables tart, more French than Italian – with a touch of gratin added to it.
But it does not matter, what matters is that it is delicious, easy to make and a great way to use your crop of tomatoes and sweet peppers when you fancy a change.
PIZZA GRATINEE
Recipe for 4 persons
Preparation: 1 hour ahead
Cooking time: 25 minutes in a pre-heated oven – Thermostat: 7
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
200g plain flour
a pinch of potato flour
a pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter
1 large spoonful of oil
1 egg yolk
a knob of butter (for the tart tin)
For the filing:
2 onions
2 sweet peppers
4 tomatoes
150g ham
150g Gruyère cheese
4 spoonfuls of finely chopped parsley
Salt & pepper
Method
In a large bowl, combine the flour, potato flour, melted butter and oil. Gradually add half a glass of water to work the pastry together. Add the egg yolk and salt. Work together until the pastry is smooth and supple. Leave to rest for 3/4 hour.
Preheat the oven. While the pastry is resting, finely chopped the onions, thinly slice the sweet peppers and tomatoes and pan-fry them together. Add the sliced ham, grated cheese, chopped parsley and salt & pepper to the pan. Remove from the heat.
Butter and flour a pastry tin. Spread the pastry with a rolling pin and place in the tart tin. Trim the excess pastry, leaving 2 or 3 cm extra from the edge. Fold back the excess. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork.
Spread the filing onto the pastry and bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven. Serve piping hot when the top of the pizza is golden
Harvest celebrations would not be complete without wine. To go with the Pizza Gratinée, I would suggest a glass or two of rosé from Provence, a little reminder of summer holidays before autumn arrives…
Sophie's Taste 
