It's generally preferred that you don't deconstruct the heirloom tomato too much, because it's so beautiful to start with.
This heirloom tomato flatbread is a great way to use those beautiful, garden fresh beauties.
Also try this heirloom tomato pasta dish. 
This recipe can get as hands on or hands off as you want it to. It's meant to showcase the tomato, so the sauce is minimal, like a scaled-down pesto.
If you don't want to make the flatbread dough, you can find it at any grocery store, and many pizza restaurants will sell it to you as well.
The same goes for the ricotta cheese, which is also very easy to make. It's also much more delicious when made from scratch.
The beauty of this recipe, is that it doesn't have to be perfect.
When you go to roll the dough out, don't worry about the perfect shape or smooth edges. As long as it has a semi-uniform thickness, and fits on the initial pan, it's fine.
Once you have that solid base, it's all extremely quick and easy from there.
The light sauce takes seconds to make, and is so fresh and delicious.
Give the ingredients a few pulses in the food processor, and then apply it edge to edge. Put the pan that I used for par-baking the bread on the bottom rack underneath the flatbread, to catch any small amount of oil that might drip off the edges.
When the tomatoes get sliced, they need to be no thicker than a quarter of an inch, and I actually go thinner than that, otherwise its just to heavy and the liquid in the tomatoes can pool up.
If they are super juicy, pat them dry with a paper towel, before arranging in a single layer on top of the sauce.
Finish with a couple pinches of coarse salt and pepper, and extra fresh herbs.
Bake at 400 degrees until crust is golden brown and ricotta is lightly toasted.
Heirloom Tomato, Herb and Ricotta Flatbread
Ingredients
- 1 medium pizza dough
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 3-5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3-5 stems fresh dill
- ½ cup parmesan grated
- 1-2 heirloom tomatoes of choice depending on size
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- coarse salt and coarse ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Roll out prepared pizza/flatbread dough on a floured surface to uniform thickness, about 9x13 inches in area.
- Transfer to a baking sheet, or stoneware and bake for 5-7 minutes, until bottom is no longer raw.
- In a food processor, combine oil, garlic, fresh herbs, parmesan, and pinch of salt and pepper, and pulse until combined.
- Spread on par-baked flatbread from edge to edge, making sure to get all the outer edges completely.
- Top with thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes, single layer. Lightly salt and pepper over the tomatoes.
- Top with piles of ricotta cheese, and more fresh herbs.
- Bake at 400 degrees about 15 minutes, until crust is golden brown.
- Slice in a zig-zag pattern and serve.
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