Zucchini and Egg Tart With Fresh Herbs

Looks delicious, concept good, but really poor execution all around. Next time I will bake the pastry to make a tart shell. While the pastry bakes, sauté zucchini and peas with herbs and scallions till slightly browned. Then assemble tarts. First, coat pastry shells with creme fresh or marscapone. Next cover with vegetable mixture, creating a nest to hold the egg. Sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, bake filled tarts until eggs are firm but soft.

The puff pastry -- one whole package?! Or one sheet from a package? It feels impossible that a single tart requires 14oz of pastry...

You can cook the puff pastry and vegetables ahead of time, assemble and chill, then plop the eggs into their nooks just before baking. If you’d like, lose the mustard and crème fraîche and use mascarpone, garlicky Boursin cheese or even softened cream cheese instead. To serve a crowd, bypass the eggs; add some cooked asparagus, fennel or other seasonal vegetables; and drape with prosciutto or smoked salmon. Garnish with whatever herbs are kicking around in your crisper and fistfuls of barely dre

Hi Rick! I do totally get your point: Laying the vegetables out flat on the tart and topping the cooked tart with fried or poached eggs would be totally delightful (and EASY)! Here, parbaking the crust ensures it stays crisp. As for frying or poaching the egg, the texture would be totally different. Essentially the egg is coddled by the zucchini here, so it bakes into a wobbly custardy state, with texture that is even more delicate than a poached egg.

I love NY Times cooking recipes and always read the Cooking Notes before preparing a recipe. I print out each recipe that I prepare to use while cooking. But the notes do not print out with the recipe. How can I add the Cooking Notes when printing the recipes?

Hi Suzanne! The reason this bakes directly on an inverted baking sheet is mostly for efficiency: Instead of rolling out the dough on a work surface then transferring it to the baking sheet (and cleaning the work surface), you can simply roll it out directly on the baking sheet by flipping over the baking sheet to create a flat surface. It's a pretty common trick/tip from professional pastry kitchens in an effort to cut down on cleaning!

it's a bit of work, but well worth it for me - I find the comments quite useful and usually make changes as per other cook's suggestions. I open a blank Word document, then copy and paste whatever I want to remember for next time. Hope this helps.

Use pre-prepared mille feuille pastry instead of puff; make it in a sheet-pan and don't bother with the side pieces. Just drape the whole thing over the pan (as many layers as you fancy) and scrunch it up all around for a great artisanal look.

I suppose you could substitute a friend of yours who likes zucchini. j/k, I know that wasn't your question. Trick is to have a veggie that can build the "nests". Eggplant should work. Does he like yellow squash better than zukes? Maybe go carnivorous instead and use deli ham or roast beef?

Instead of creme fraiche, etc., use Boursin or marscapone or cream cheese. For a crowd fill with veggies, drape with prosciutto or smoked salmon. Top with barely dressed mache or arugula

Wonderful brunch/weekend supper that screams spring! I did half scallions/half leeks and added in some asparagus. I initially baked the puffed pastry for 15 minutes before adding on the veggies and eggs and then put it back in the oven for another 17 minutes--perfectly runny eggs! I used a vegetable peeler to make the zucchini slices and that worked well--just enough thickness to create wells for the eggs, while also allowing them to cook through. Adding this to the regular Spring rotation!

Baking the egg in the pastry seems tedious and likely to make your perfectly crisp shell soggy. Its not like baking the egg in the pasty is going to lend flavor to the shell or visa versa. Why not just fry/poach the egg separately and bring them together before you plate?

Hi Tricia! Good question! I decided to use the whole puff pastry here, because the toppings are fairly heavy and I wanted the puff pastry base to stand up to them. I worry that if you use only half the package, the puff pastry would be too delicate. It would be tricky to roll it out that thinly to the desired size, and then once the tart is assembled I'd worry the thinner base might absorb too much moisture and potentially fall apart.

750 calories for a complete dinner isn't unreasonable.

Marscapone is about 300 calories, sheep puff pastry about 1400 calories, each egg about 91,...add all the remaining ingredients, divide by four, 750 seems about right.