Cooking Floyd: Dark Days Challenge: Feb. Week 13

Last week Michael planted a tubful of leek seeds and it's time to get the seeds started for our early cole crops.  We try to get those crops, along with peas, onions, spinach, and other early spring greens and veg, into the ground between March 15th and 30th.  Planting the seeds indoors now signals to me that we're sliding down the backside of winter.  We've got a few cellared vegetables left but not much.  We're pretty good for frozen and canned stuff.  But for fresh green stuff I'm now making more frequent trips to Green's Garage where I can find organic if not strictly local stuff and local greenhouse grown things although that's beginning to look pretty rough as well.  So between my stash and theirs, this week's entry (entree) in the DDC is based on the Fall Vegetable Tart from The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman.

Fall Vegetable Tart
Ingredients
2 medium beets, peeled and cut into 1/3" dice
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/3" dice
1 medium onion, halved and slivered
1 medium bell pepper, diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
your favorite savory single crust pastry for one 9-10" pie
8 oz crumbled chevre

I used my canned whole beets that were already cooked and peeled, diced bell pepper from the freezer, our next to last stashed butternut squash, our own garlic and a pretty rough looking onion that actually was small after peeling off a few nasty layers, rosemary from the winter salad shelf, and organic tiny mushrooms from Harvest Moon Food Store here in Floyd.  Curtin's Dairy supplied the chevre.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425F.  Lightly oil a shallow pan or baking sheet.

The easiest way to season the veg is to put them all in a bowl along with the garlic, drizzle with the oil, add the rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.  Toss well so everything is coated and then spread in a single layer on the baking sheet.  I, on the other hand, prefer to not have the beets turn everything red so I laid each veg out on the baking sheet, sprinkled everything with the garlic and seasonings, and drizzled the oil over all.

Into the oven with the sheet for 35-45 minutes or until the veg poke tender and are just slightly browned.  Remove the veg and turn the oven down to 375F.

Roll out your pastry to an approximately 12" circle and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  Pile half of the crumbled chevre in the center of the pastry leaving a 2" border.  You can actually use your choice of cheese here.  Chesman recommends Fontina, I used chevre, but I think most any cheese would be yummy.

Pile the roasted veg on top of the cheese keeping that clear 2" border.  Then lift and pleat the pastry snugly against the piled veg.

Sprinkle the other half of the cheese on top.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese melted, or in the case of the chevre, lightly browned.

Cut into wedges and serve warm.  Since there is no binder don't expect the veg to hold together when you try to serve a slice.  It will fall apart a little.  But it still tastes good!  The next time I make this I'll probably pour a mix of beaten egg and milk over the tart before baking, just to remedy that problem.  Not enough to call it a quiche, just enough to bind it.