Tomato Tartlets

By blum099

FOOD C9 WINE's Grace Parisi
deconstructed the traditional
French tomato tart and came
up with this amazingly fast and
easy hors d'oeuvre. Her stroke
of geni us: Instead of making
individual tarts, she prebakes
a large rectangle of puff pastry,
spreads on silky pureed ricotta
cheese, tops it with oven-roasted
cherry tomatoes, cuts and serves

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour, for ro lling
• 1/2 pound all -butter puff pastry
• 30 cherry tomatoes (about
• 1 pound), halved crosswise
• 2 tablespoons extra -vi rgin
• ol ive oil
• 2 teaspoons thyme leaves,
• plus more for garnish
• Kosher salt and f reshly ground
• pepper
• 1/2 pound f resh ricotta cheese

Preparation

Step 1

1 Preheat the oven to 4250 and line a large baking sheet with
parchment paper. Position racks in the middle and upper thirds
ofthe oven. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to
a 9Y2-by-17Y2-inch rectangle. Using a straight edge, trim the pastry to
a 9-bY-17-inch rectangle. Transfer the pastry to the baking sheet
and poke all over with a fork. Top with another sheet of parchment
and another baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes on the middle
rack, until golden. Remove the top baking sheet and parchment paper
and bake the pastry until lightly browned and dry, about 10 minutes
longer. Slide the paper and pastry onto a rack and let cool.
2 Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the olive oil and
2 teaspoons of thyme and season with salt and pepper. Place the
tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut side up, and bake on the upper rack for
about 15 minutes, until softened slightly. Let cool.
3 In a food processor, puree the ricotta cheese until very creamy.
Spread the ricotta over the cooled pastry and season with salt and
pepper. Arrange the tomatoes cut side up on the ricotta in 5 rows of 12.
Sprinkle lightly with thyme leaves. Using a long knife, cut the pastry
between the tomatoes into 60 squares. Transfer the tartlets to platters
and serve them at once.
MAKE AHEAD The recipe can be prepared through Step 2 and kept at
room temperature for up to 8 hours.