Mini tarts with tomato and basil

Serves:

20 mini tarts

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 2  2/3 cups (400g) plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 200g cold, diced butter
• 4 tbsp ice cold water

For the filling:

• 1 cup smooth ricotta
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 2 eggs
• 1 handful cherry tomatoes
• 1 handful basil leaves blended with 1 cup olive oil, or 1/2 cup pesto

Method

For the pastry:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced).

Combine the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the water and blitz again so a dough forms. Turn mixture out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes so you have a smooth, elastic dough.

Wrap in plastic and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Then roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut the pastry into rounds to fit small pastry cases. Line and trim the pastry then return to the fridge to chill for a further 30 minutes.

Line tart shells with baking paper weighed down with coins, dried beans or pastry weights and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and weights and set aside.

For the filling:

Mix the ricotta, parmesan and eggs together until you have a smooth mixture. Divide this among the blind baked tart shells and top with half a cherry tomato and return to the oven.

Cook for 15 minutes or until the filling is golden and the tomato has collapsed. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the basil oil or pesto and serve.

Serving Suggestions

Note

• Instead of pastry cases, a one-cup capacity muffin tin also works really well or you could also just use one large tart tin.
• Instead of baking these tarts with a filling, after blind baking, remove the paper and weights and cook for a further 10 minutes then fill with anything from mashed up avocado and a squeeze of lemon or cream cheese and smoked salmon or mashed up boiled egg with mayo. The possibilities really are endless!
• Use feta instead of ricotta for a slightly more salty result.
• You can of course use pre-made pastry cases or shop-bought pastry. I have included my pastry recipe above just because it’s a great one to know and if you make extra, the kids love cutting, rolling and playing with it too!
• If you like creamy goat’s cheese then these Goat’s cheese and leek tart will be delicious.
• This Sweet potato and sage tart make a nice portable picnic meal.
• This Three cheese and asparagus tart is a lovely addition to any buffet. Just slice it into wedges.
• These Tomato and ricotta tartlets with thyme oil have a smooth creamy texture.
• If you like piquant flavour then you this Tomato and anchovy tart is a great lunch time dish when served up with salad.
• You can make these Eggplant and potato tarts for an easy weekend lunch.
• This recipe was created by Sophie Hansen for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder: You can follow Sophie on Local is Lovely, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.