Open any food magazine and I pretty much guarantee there is a puff pastry tart recipe in there somewhere.
I’m guessing it’s a staple with food editors across the land because you can top it with anything that takes your fancy and it tends to look pretty magnificent yet is a cinch to make.
Blocks of ready-made puff pastry are inexpensive and a great staple for the freezer.
You just defrost it for a couple of hours at room temperature, roll it out and top it however you fancy.
It could make a smart starter for a dinner party if you made it into mini tartlets, a simple weekend lunch or a weeknight meal to fill hungry tummies!
It’s not low fat but that makes it very satisfying. You only need a small slice with a big green salad and it’ll fill you right up.
It doesn’t need many ingredients, it’s not expensive but it does take over an hour to cook in the oven. So as long as you get it assembled in advance it’s a low faff supper.
The bonus of cooking the tomatoes for so long though is the resulting deep tomatoey flavour you’re rewarded with.
Tomato and pesto tart (serves 4-6)
1 x 375g pack ready-made puff pastry
150g mascarpone
50g grated parmesan
3 tablespoons pesto
6 decent sized fresh ripe tomatoes (plum toms work well, bog standard ones fine too)
1. Preheat ovben to 200’c/fan 180’c. Line a 20x30cm baking tray with a slightly larger sheet of baking parchment.
2. Roll out the pastry and lay it over the baking sheet. Turn over the edges of the pastry so that it just fits inside. Press the excess pastry down around the edges to make a small lip.
3. Mix the mascarpone with grated parmesan and pesto, season to taste and spread over the pastry leaving a 5cm border.
4. Top and tail the tomatoes, slice and lay on the pastry overlapping each other. Season and drizzle with olive oil. Bake on the upper/middle shelf for 40 mins.
5. Turn the oven down to 150’c/fan 140’c and bake for a further 30-40mins until the tomatoes go a deep crimson. Slide onto a chopping board, remove parchment and serve with a green salad.
Looks delicious!! Yes, puff pastry is a staple of our fridge/freezer. Like you say, throw anything on it and it looks and tastes great 😉
Thanks Nick. Yes it’s lazy but effective!
This looks yummy and a great vegetarian dish. I’m afraid we tend towards the strictly canrivorous in our house so it’s good to get some alternative ideas.
Yes it’s hard to think of satisying veggie meals at times – but this certainly packs a punch!
looks yummy!
Thanks Lorraine 🙂
I’ve not done anything with puff pastry for ages but you are right it’s so easy. I like putting sliced fried red onions and thyme on mine.
That sounds like a yummy combo – will need to give that a try.