Galette of Late Summer Vegetables with (or without) Cheddar Cheese Ice Cream

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Melissa Clark is one of my all-time favorite recipe makers. I look forward to her weekly columns in the Times one of which is called
“A Good Appetite”. I sometimes think it also be called “Playing with Your Food” because Melissa treats her readers to any number of machinations and generally allows her followers free reign with her recipes. And that’s exactly what I did with a recent foray Melissa took us on into the world of the galette. A galette and its Italian cousin the crostata are free-form pastries that require no pie plate or tart pan. Instead dough is rolled out flat in something approaching a round shape, the filling is loaded on top and the edges of the dough are folded over the filling. It’s completely undemanding and if filling oozes out of the side that’s all chocked up to the rustic charms of this particular offering. Real butter is must when making the pastry and using the best filling you can find will turn out a gloriously golden dish that even the most novice baker can be proud of. Andrew has shared his share of galettes and a superb crostata which you can find using the search function on the left side of this page. But this would be our first savory version of the dish. But I seemed to remember that pleasure of these was greatly increased when topped with a scoop of ice cream. So when he and I made this one, I couldn’t help but wonder if that wouldn’t also be true here. So I made Cheddar Cheese Ice Cream to top off our dish. But first we made the galette.

Melissa Clark had pointed out that once get the hang of it, you can basically write your own recipe. Whatever fruit is in season, and in this case, whatever leftover vegetables you have or whatever you found irresistible at the Farmer’s market can be pressed into use here. We’d made a stew of onions, red peppers and fennel that filled the leftover requirement. To that we added eggplant, summer squash and zucchini, and plum tomatoes all of which we roasted while the whole wheat crust rested in the fridge. Melissa called for goat cheese, never a huge hit with Andrew and so we substituted a round of Boursin. The dish also got a hit of heat with the addition of some hot chile peppers. Into the oven it went and presto! We served it with a salad for a light meatless meal. On day two, I added a scoop of freshly made Cheddar cheese ice cream the recipe for which, follows. But don’t let the lack of ice cream stop you from making the galette. It will please you all by itself. Here is the recipe:

Recipe for Late Summer Vegetable Galette Takes 2 hours to prepare plus 90 minutes for the pastry to rest (or make the pastry the night before and roll it out the day you make the galette). Serves 8.

⅔ cup all-purpose flour

⅔ cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 large egg

Heavy cream, as needed

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into big pieces

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest (optional)

FOR THE FILLING:

2 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), trimmed and thinly sliced

2 medium zucchini (about 3/4 pound), trimmed and thinly sliced

2 medium summer squash (about ¾ pound) trimmed and thinly sliced

1 pound plum tomatoes, cored and thinly sliced

Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed

Kosher salt, as needed

Black pepper, as needed

2 hot chile peppers, such as cherry peppers, seeded and minced

5 ounces goat or Boursin cheese, softened

1 small garlic clove, grated or pressed

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1.In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or in a large bowl, pulse or mix together the flours, sugar, and salt. In a measuring cup, lightly beat the egg, then add just enough cream to get to 1/3 cup. Lightly whisk the egg and cream together.

2. Add butter to flour mixture and pulse or use a pastry cutter or your fingers to break up the butter. If using a food processor, do not over-process; you need chickpea-size chunks of butter. Drizzle the egg mixture (up to 1/4 cup) over the dough and pulse or stir until it just starts to come together but is still mostly large crumbs. Mix in lemon juice and zest if using.

3. Put the dough on lightly floured counter and knead to make one uniform piece. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 9 mins., or up to 3 days.

4. When you are ready to make the tart, roll out dough to a 12-inch round (it can be ragged).

5. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and chill while preparing the filling.

6. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Spread out eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes in one layer on three separate sheet pans or cookie sheets. Drizzle generously with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables, tossing zucchini and eggplant occasionally, 35 to 40 minutes. Eggplant and tomatoes will be golden at the edges; zucchini will be tender.

7. Decrease oven temperature to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine cheese, garlic and thyme leaves. Spread mixture in a thin layer over crust, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border all around.

8. Arrange vegetables evenly over goat cheese. Fold up edges of crust, pleating to hold it in (sloppy is fine). Brush pastry generously with leftover egg and cream mixture.

9. Transfer galette to oven and bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.

Now about that Cheddar Cheese Ice Cream…

If nothing else, this will be a true conversation starter when you appear with what looks for all the world like dessert. I must confess

that recipe churns out an ice cream that is sweet. But you’ll taste the cheddar which was the whole idea. The recipe came from

Gael Gand, pastry chef and partner at Tru restaurant in Chicago, and a cheesemaker named Joe Widmer and appears on www.ChewingtheFat.us.com courtesy of the American Dairy Association.

2 cups half-and-half

2 cups milk

Fresh white ground pepper

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

9 large egg yolks

1-1/3 cups granulated sugar

16 ounces grated aged Cheddar

Heat the half-and-half, milk, vanilla bean, and white ground pepper in a saucepan over medium heat to boil. Stir occasionally to make be sure the mixture doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

Turn off the heat and let cool 10 minutes to infuse the flavors.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. In a thin stream, whisk half of the half-and-half mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Then pour the remaining half in and whisk well. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. At 160°F, the mixture will give off a puff of steam. When the mixture reaches 180° it will be thickened and creamy, like eggnog. If you don’t have a thermometer, test it by dipping a wooden spoon into the mixture. Run your finger down the back of the spoon. If the stripe remains clear, the mixture is ready; if the edges blur, the mixture is not quite thick enough yet.

When the mixture is ready, quickly remove it from the heat. Pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl. Stir in the grated cheese and whisk to melt.

Rest the bottom of the bowl in an ice bath (a bowl with of ice cubes and add cold water to cover). Let the mixture cool for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Then freeze according to the directions of your ice cream machine.