We’re going to be finished cooking through Around My French Table in April of next year, approximately, so it’s not surprising that many of the recipes are starting to make me look back as much as look ahead. This week’s dish especially reminded me how close we are coming to the end of the book.

This is our last official scallop dish for the group, save for a bonne idée or two. I’ve told you before that scallops are my favourite seafood, so I’ve been looking forward to tackling this dish.

Tartes fines are usually rounds of puff pastry (or sometimes pâte sucrée for desserts) with finely sliced toppings in a circular design. Though I’ve made
gluten-free puff pastry before, it’s quite an undertaking, so I decided to try out a gluten-free Comensoli Pizza Shell I’d picked up at our local food co-op. It’s a new item there and I managed to get the last package. They went fast and for good reason. This crust is chewy and crunchy, holding its topping without crumbling. I’ll definitely be buying this brand again. It can be hard to find gluten-free pizza shells that don’t fall apart or taste terrible.

The only other change I made to the recipe was to add a bit of balsamic to the caramelized onions before I added slivers of bacon. I’d heard from other Doristas over the week that this dish lacked a little something and I decided that the something must be balsamic. It goes so well with all the ingredients.

It was a good decision, as the jammy bacon and onion mixture was the best part about this dish. The scallops themselves were a little flavourless in comparison. They are really just heated through, rather than fully cooked, and I prefer the crunchy, caramelly flavour of seared scallops.

If I were to make this again, I’d leave the scallops off the tart and sear them instead, serving them on greens alongside. I think they would shine more than they did here and it would make a complete meal.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Scallop and Onion Tartes Fines