Instructions

1. For the pastry, mix salt into flour in a medium sized bowl. Add the cubes of cold butter and use your fingertips to rub it into the flour. Tip: This is a very flaky pastry so you won’t likely get a fine breadcrumb-looking mixture, more a mixture that looks like a mix of breadcrumbs and larger pieces of butter coated in flour.
2. Add 3 tbsp of the ice-cold water and mix in using the tip of a blunt knife. Once mostly mixed through, use your hands to squeeze and bring the dough together in the bowl. Tip: To avoid over-kneading, we find it best to squeeze the mixture together against the sides of the bowl rather than a kneading action, this keeps the little bits of butter intact.
3. If the dough is extremely dry with a lot of dry flour left at the bottom of the bowl, add another ½ – 1 tbsp cold water and work into the dough.
4. Tip dough out onto a large piece of parchment paper and bring together to form a thick disc. Fold the parchment over the dough to cover then chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Tip: The dough can be made a few days ahead and stored in the fridge until needed.
5. To make the galette, pre-heat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan assisted. Place a large flat baking sheet inside on the middle rack of the oven to heat up. Tip: You can also turn a large roasting dish over so that the underside is facing up.
6. Remove pastry from the fridge and roll out on the parchment paper with a rolling pin into a large round shape about 5mm thick. Tip: Try avoid dusting too much with flour, if the dough does start sticking to the rolling pin, very lightly rub a bit of flower on the rolling pin itself.
7. Transfer rolled out pastry, still on the parchment paper, to a large baking tray.
8. Use a fork to loosen the ricotta cheese then spread the ricotta over the pastry but keeping a 4-5cm border around the edges of the pastry (these will be folded over to form the galette).
9. Sprinkle lightly with a small pinch of salt.
10. Arrange the large slices of tomato on top of the ricotta, then top with the smaller tomato halves. Strew over the thin slices of garlic, then season with a more generous pinch of salt and some pepper. Finally, sprinkle with oregano and the stems of thyme.
11. Fold the pastry border up and over the filling starting at 6 o’clock and working your way around the pastry until you’re back where you started folding, crimping the pastry together where the folds meet to help them stick.
12. Brush the pastry border with beaten egg and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
13. Place tray directly on top of the hot tray already in the oven and bake until pastry is golden, 30-35 minutes.
14. Remove from oven and leave to stand for about 5 -10 minutes before serving. (Because the ricotta has a high-water content, the pastry will absorb some of the liquid, but the pastry should be cooked through with the help of the hot tray).