Tomato Basil Tart

Yes, I know, tarts seem to be the only thing I ever make with puff pastry. Sue me. But this time I put a savory twist on things  using some fresh tomatoes and basil from my garden to make this fabulous appetizer.  I really wanted to do this with goat cheese, but they were out when I went to the grocery (for shame!), so I used cream cheese instead.  And the results were–OMG AWESOME!  There was so much NOM NOM NOMING going on at the dinner I took these to that conversation simply stopped for the 3 minutes it took us to inhale it.

Ingredients:

• 2/3rds of a sheet of puff pastry
• handful of fresh basil
• 1 cup of fresh cherry tomatoes
• 4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 egg white
• fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. On a floured surface, roll out your puff pastry until it makes a nice large square.
3. Transfer the flattened pastry to a pizza pan (you can use some other kind of pan but the pizza pan is so nice and uniformly round).
4. Take your cream cheese and if it’s already softened, add the garlic powder and mix well.  If you’re like me and don’t have the patience to wait, put it in a bowl and microwave for 15 seconds, then add the garlic powder and mix well.
5. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the center of the puff pastry, leaving about a one inch edge uncovered.
6. Crank a bit of black pepper over the whole thing.
7. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half.
8. Layer the basil leaves (I like them whole, but you can certainly cut them) over the cream cheese mixture.
9. Layer the tomatoes between the basil.
10. Fold up the edges of your tart (we all know I always do rustic here).
11. Brush the top of the pastry with egg white.
12. Bake for 18 minutes.

Printable version.