SARA MOULTON

Tomato, mozzarella and basil tart is a celebration of the tomato at the peak of its perfection, namely right now.

But you want to keep the tomatoes’ water content from making the tart soggy. How to do it? Salt and drain them. This not only flushes out their excess liquid, but magnifies their tomatoiness. For that matter, I recommend lightly salting and draining tomatoes even when you plan to eat them raw in a salad.

Here we’ve paired the tomatoes with some of their BFFs — mozzarella and basil — then stacked the deck by adding some ricotta and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The recipe calls for full-fat mozzarella and ricotta, but you can lighten it up by using low-fat versions instead.

Also, if you don’t feel like making pie dough from scratch, go ahead and substitute store-bought pie dough. (It’s usually sold already rolled out in a disposable pie tin.) After letting the store-bought dough soften a bit at room temperature, lift it up gently and fit it into the tart tin just as you would if you were using homemade dough.

By the way, a tart tin fitted with a removable fluted rim will make you look like a baking genius. It automatically gives the dough a fluted edge — no shaping on your part required — and it’s designed for easy unmoulding so it’s a cinch to cut out slices.

The finished tart is hard to beat — great right out of the oven or at room temperature — for lunch or dinner, at home or at a picnic.