The Sweet and the Savoury

I love a dish that can be made with either sweet or savoury ingredients and most importantly, come together quickly and easily.  That's what I discovered when I made my first galette a couple of years ago.  Best defined as a free-form rustic tart, a galette is essentially a butter crust filled with fruit, vegetables, or even meat.  Read what David Lebovitz says about galettes here.

The first galette I made was with apples.  Like an apple pie, but without the pie plate.  I like the free-form.  A lot. No near-perfect discs of crust to cut out and delicately lay in my pie plate.  No little crimping wheel to edge my top crust.  Make a disc of dough (roughly-shaped is okay), roll it out, fill with fruits or what have you, fold the edges in to hold all your goodies inside, pop it in the oven and bake.  Boom!  Done!

Last week I came across an article on Saveur's website on what to do with zucchini.  It's summer...zucchini, zucchini everywhere!  My home was no different.  I wanted something to do other than zucchini bread (though I'm still going to make it) or sauted and tossed with pasta (it was delicious!).  There it was....a leek and zucchini galette.  Ooooh....it sounded so good.  I became a little obsessed with wanting to make it.  Posting the link on my Facebook page, checking my butter stock in the fridge, impatiently waiting for the farmers' market right in front of my store so I could buy leeks.  Then it happened.  A change of schedule at work.  An earlier release so I had ample time to make my galette and not be eating dinner at midnight.  The obsession would come to fruition.

Did I mention how easy it is to make a galette?  Don't even bother with a mixer or food processor to make your dough.  It comes together so quickly in a bowl.

Leek and Zucchini Galette
(Adapted from a recipe on Saveur)

Crust

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
8 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
4-6 tablespoons cold water

Mix dry ingredients together.  Add butter and incorporate into flour with 2 knives,  pastry cutter or your hands.  You want a consistency of large crumbs.  I started off using the pastry cutter and finished using my hands.   Add 4 tablespoons of water to flour and stir with wooden spoon.  You want the dough to mix and pull away from the sides of the bowl.  This will happen...easily.  If mix is too dry, add more water tablespoon by tablespoon.  Fold dough together, don't worry if you have bits of butter showing.  Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

Filling

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium leeks, sliced thin

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

pinch of nutmeg

2 cups thinly sliced zucchini

In a pan, heat the olive oil.  Add leeks and slowly cook until they begin to brown.  Stir in garlic, thyme and nutmeg.  Mix to incorporate and remove from heat.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (so you can move the galette easily).  On a lightly floured board, roll dough out to form about a 12-inch crust.  Leave about an inch-inch and a half edge on the crust and spoon leeks onto crust.  Layer zucchini slices on top of leeks.  You can make this as pretty or not as you like.  Fold edges of crust over and lightly brush zucchini with a bit of olive oil.  Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Remove from baking sheet and transfer to a wire rack.  

The Saveur recipe calls for a lemon-ricotta topping.  I didn't have ricotta, but I did have feta.  I mashed feta until it was smooth, added about a teaspoon of lemon zest and called it a day.  The feta has a nice bite to the mellow taste of the leeks and zucchini.  

I'm still obsessing...the weekend has just begun....I bought plums and nectarines at the grocer's...and I've got butter.