Birthday Treats

Foodie break. Yesterday was a big birthday for my husband Nick, so I was in the kitchen rather than the studio. The farmers' market is bursting with fall vegetables, and we came home with kabocha squash (tip from a farmer: the dark green ones are sweetest), zucchini, red onion, Japanese eggplant and pimiento peppers.

I made an oil-based crust with finely chopped almonds in place of some of the flour.I sauteed the onion, but coated chunks of the other veggies in olive oil, sprinkled them with a bit of gray salt and oregano, roasted them separately, then tossed them together when cool with the kernels from an ear of sweet yellow corn. The crust dough is rolled out directly on a silicone sheet, veggies are mounded in the center, the edges of the dough brought up around the sides, and the whole tart slid onto a baking sheet. Because the vegetables are already cooked, about 20 minutes in a 400-degree oven is all that's needed to brown the crust.

I served it with a sauce from Veganomicon, meant to imitate a cheese sauce. While it didn't, it made the tart reminiscent of a good pot pie. The green on top is shredded basil and parsley.

We finished with a semolina-almond meal cake brushed with orange juice and cloaked in Valrhona chocolate.