Growing up in Brazil, I gleaned with my family for food post harvest, scouring the countryside for fruits and vegetable that might otherwise go to waste. As a cook and an artist, I find the act of gleaning carries into my work: I don’t want to waste anything. So this season it has been the story of apples. They have been so abundant this year and so I have made sauce for festivals, fruit lather, canned, juiced and dried them. I made hand pies and apple pies. For my husband’s birthday he requested, a “Tarte Tatin” and here a simple delicious version of this apple upside down tart that uses all those “not so perfect”, but full of flavor apples you may find rolling down the streets.

One of my favorite quotes from Agnès Varda documentary “The Gleaners and I”:

“I like the idea that one hand would be always gleaning, the other one always filming. I like very much the idea of the hands. The hands are the tool of the gleaners, you know. Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist”

RECIPE: UPSIDE-DOWN MAPLE APPLE TART
“Tarte Tatin” inspired

INGREDIENTS

• 6 apples, peeled and cored apples
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 pie crust
• Oven safe skillet like a cast iron

METHODS

On a 8-inch cast iron skillet melt 1/4 cup of maple syrup and 4 tablespoons of butter:

Arrange peeled and cored apples (about 6) round side down. Cook on low on the stovetop for 10 minutes, undisturbed:

Trim a pie crust leaving a 1/4 inch more than your pan size:

Cover the cast iron with the pie crust and bake on 425F for about 25 minutes:

Tart is done when the crust is golden. Hold skillet and plate together and carefully turn the cast iron skillet over. Serve hot or room temperature:

ENJOY!