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Savory Puff Pastry Tarts - Cherry Tomato, Asparagus & Grilled Onion

Roberta Reynolds
These simple tarts are super-easy, delicious, take nearly no time at all, and make you look like you’ve been to cooking school in France. Here we offer three choices, so make one, two or all three. Or combine everything on to one tart. Or make up your own toppings – it’s fun! The filling is chock full of the rich nuttiness of Gruyere cheese, the creaminess of ricotta, and the soft tang of mascarpone. Highlight with some fresh herbs & lemon zest and look out! Note: This recipe makes two large tarts, or four smaller ones. Feel free to only make half a recipe or combine the mushrooms with the asparagus on both – after all, it’s your tart. Do whatever sounds good to you.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 2 large tarts or 4 small tarts

Ingredients
  

  • 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry thawed
  • 1, 8- ounce container of mascarpone cheese
  • 1, 16- ounce container of whole milk ricotta NOTE: Be sure and look for ricotta that doesn’t have fillers, preservatives, or other strange ingredients you can’t understand the name of. The stuff with all of those additives usually tastes dry and gritty so it’s worth spending a little bit more on the good stuff
  • 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives
  • 1 teaspoon each fresh marjoram oregano, an thyme, chopped fine (if you don’t have them, no sweat – just use about 1 tablespoon of your favorite dried herb blend
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 ½ pounds of medium to thick asparagus washed with tough ends trimmed (if very thick, slice lengthwise in half), then tossed with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and ½ tsp. salt
  • About one pint of cherry tomatoes sliced cross-wise
  • 2 large white or yellow onions sliced about ¼ inch thick and sautéed over medium high heat until they start to soften, turn brown and caramelize. Hint: The less you fuss around with the onions, the better off you’ll be. If you let them sit in the hot pan for a few minutes without peeking and stirring them around, you’ll see that they start to brown pretty quickly.

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a Silpat mat.
  • You can do this a couple of different ways – either use a whole sheet of puff pastry or cut a piece in half lengthwise to make two smaller tarts. Dust your counter top with flour and roll out (to about 10x12 inches if using an entire sheet, or about 7x10 if using two halves).
  • Place puff pastry in center of the sheet. Using a paring knife, make a shallow cut around the entire sheet of pastry about ½ inch from the edge, then fold over to create a crust/border. At this point, I like to take my two index fingers and make a sort of scallop pattern around the tart by smooshing my fingers together. This seems to hold the crust down a little better, but don’t do it if you don’t feel like it.
  • Using a fork, prick holes all over the entire pastry, including the border. NOTE: This is important. I forgot to do it once and ended up with my filling spilled all over the side of the tart because it puffed up so much it bucked everything off.
  • In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta, mascarpone, and Gruyere cheese. Stir in herbs and lemon zest and salt to taste. If using half sheets of pastry, spread about ½ cup of cheese mixture evenly over top of pasty, leaving about ½ inch border all around. If using an entire sheet, use about 1 cup of cheese mixture.
  • For the Asparagus Tart: Arrange asparagus over top of cheese mixture in layout of your choice.
  • For the Cherry Tomato Tart: Same thing. Arrange the tomatoes however you like.
  • For the Grilled Onion Tart: Drop spoonfuls of the grilled onion over the cheese mixture. You’ll probably have more than you can use, but I’m sure you can be creative in figuring out what to do with them.
  • Bake tarts for about 25 minutes, or until tart shell has darkened, cheese is bubbling, and asparagus is crisp-tender.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.
  • Cook’s Notes:
  • You will probably have a little bit of the cheese mixture left over. You can toss it with some pasta or rice, spread it on bread for a sandwich filling, or whatever else suits your fancy.
  • Amazingly enough, this tart is as good at room temperature as it is hot out of the oven If you don’t eat a whole tart in one sitting (as if), you can re-crisp it by putting in a 350- degree oven for a few minutes until the bottom crust crisps up again.