Before you all start throwing tomatoes at me for being such a horrible blogger in the past few weeks, I would like to warn you that I have some great posts coming in the near future. But only if you keep the produce-throwing to a minimum. OK, just had to get that out there…

The recipe for this blog post was a bit of an accident. The other day I had a huge craving for a berry tart of some kind. I had the ingredients to make my own crust, but no fresh berries. I did, however, have in my freezer a bag of frozen blueberries and in my tiny refrigerator sat a jar of raspberry jam. Sounds like a good combination to me! I thought, as I fearlessly began making a super simple crust from Food & Wine. While the crust chilled in the refrigerator, I got a little creative with my berry ingredients.

I started by combining the frozen blueberries, 1/4 cup of the raspberry jam and the juice of 1/2 a lemon in a large bowl. Hello tart-deliciousness! But I was not satisfied with the flavor. I searched through my cupboards and there it was, right in front of me. A red wine vinaigrette infused with fig that was recently given to us by Laura and Braden from Paris-based Hidden Kitchen during their visit to Tokyo. I’d never thought of using red wine vinegar in a recipe like this, but the gentle fruity flavor of the fig along with the richness of the red wine added the perfect touch.

The perfectly flaky, buttery crust and the gooey berry filling of this tart was a ray of sunshine in the midst of an otherwise dreary week.

Tart Crust
Makes 1 9-inch crust
From Food & Wine Magazine, April 2010

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt
7 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup cold cream

Butter a 9-inch tart pan. In a food processor, pulse the flour with a pinch of salt and the butter until the mixture resembles course meal. Add the cream and pulse until the dough nearly comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead a few times. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight. (This is a good time to make the filling recipe below.)

Roll out the dough into a 14-inch round. Press the round into the tart pan, trim off any excess.

Tart Filling

2 cups frozen (or fresh) blueberries
1/4-1/3 cup raspberry jam
2 teaspoons red wine vinaigrette or fruity red wine
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and stir until the jam has been broken down by the vinegar/lemon juice. Pour the filling into the prepared tart crust. Bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes at 325F, until the crust is nicely browned. Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes to allow the filling to become firm. Serve alone or topped with vanilla bean ice cream and some mint leaves.