Channeling my inner My Kitchen rules South Africa season contestant (which is actually were I found this idea) and adapted it to what I assumed was all their ingredients and the flavors that I think will taste best together. So this is my spin on this sophisticated starter set to impress. The recipe below makes individual tarts per person and makes six 9-inch tartlets.
What you need?
Short crust pastry
- 145g all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 113g of cold butter
- 3 tablespoon water (if required)
Roasted tomato filling
- 250g Baby tomatoes (assorted colors), sliced in half
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil, extra for presentation
- 1/2 red onion, quartered and sliced
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 150g full fat cream cheese
- Fresh Rocket for plating
- Grated parmesan for plating
- Balsamic reduction for plating
What to do?
- First start by making the short crust pastry. Using a food processor, add the flour, salt and add cold butter (cut into cubes, see first picture below) Blend in processor until the mixture resembles course meal. Here you want to check you don’t over mix.
- Once you have course meal, add the ice water a tablespoon at a time, while monitoring the consistency until the batter serves a soft dough. You may not require this depending on the temperature at your house etc. and whether your meal becomes dough on its own.
- Remove the dough, shape into a thick disk (see second picture below), wrap in plastic wrap and let the dough sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Bring the dough to room temperature before rolling.
- On a floured surface, roll out the pastry dough. See third picture below.
- Using the individual tartlet pan, cut a circle out slightly bigger than the tartlet pan.
- Grease the tartlet pan and form the cut out pastry into the tartlet pan and pinch the edges against the top of the pan evenly to create uniform edges. See bottom two pastries in the fourth picture below.
- Insert baking paper and add ceramic baking beads over baking paper and blind bake the pastries for 35 minutes to 40 minutes. See top two pastries in the fourth picture below.
- Remove from the oven, remove the baking paper and baking beads. See last picture below.
- For the filling, line a baking tray with foil and grease with spray and cook.
- Add the halved baby tomatoes, sliced red onions. Add crushed garlic and broken fresh basil, a generous amount of salt and pepper and olive oil. See first picture below.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and caramelized. See second picture below. Remove from the oven and dish up into a bowl to set aside until plating.
- To assemble, place rocket on a side plate. Place a baked pastry on top of the rocket.
- Dollop cream cream cheese into each pastry cup. Top with roasted tomato mix. Drizzle with balsamic reduction, fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese and serve. See last two pictures below.
