Asparagus and goat cheese tarts
Time: 45 mins | Difficulty: 1/5 | Yield: 3 tarts
These tarts are a really great example of a recipe where you don’t need a bunch of fancy ingredients to make something delicious! Asparagus, mustard, goat cheese, and ham or prosciutto come together in little beds of puff pastry, for a small tart that’s crispy, cheesy, and fresh. Plus, this recipe yields enough for a very filling meal, or some leftovers that keep really well if you don’t want to eat them all at once!
Ingredients/tools:
12 asparagus spears
Goat cheese (you can use flavored goat cheese too!)
Seedy mustard
Ham or prosciutto
An egg, beaten
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry
A rolling pin
A knife
A sheet pan
A bowl with some ice cubes and water
Method:
Prepare the asparagus: trim the ends by bending along the lower, fatter part of the spears until it snaps. (Don’t force it or slice it with a knife—let the asparagus tell you where it wants to snap!)
Boil the asparagus for a couple minutes, then drop them into the ice bath so they stop cooking.
Preheat the oven to 400°.
Split your puff pastry into three strips. (This is easy if you use a frozen puff pastry that is folded into three!) Roll them out individually as they thaw.
With the back of your knife, score a rectangle within the puff pastry rectangle, to create a kind of crust, about a half inch from the edges. Brush them with the beaten egg wash.
Spread the mustard on the inside rectangle, then the goat cheese. Add your asparagus, four to a rectangle.
Pull the ham apart, or slice it, so you have a few small, thin strips. Place them around the asparagus. Add salt and pepper and chili flakes.
Bake at 400° for about 15 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.