Thursday, September 30, 2010

Asparagus, tomato and Gruyère tart

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This colorful vegetable tart is the reason favorite Daughter is hooked on asparagus!   I came across this simple recipe in Martha’s vast recipe collection several years ago and it has been requested many times.   Served as an appetizer or main dish when accompanied with a soup or salad, this tart has a handful of ingredients and is very easy to prepare  – it fits right into a young lady’s busy college schedule.  

I have been fortunate to have children that love vegetables.  We were never a fast-food family as that option was not available to my parents in South Africa when I was little.   My kids ate what was served at our dinner table and our extended family feasts from the get-go.   I was spared the drama of picky eaters and watched their friends exhibit some strange behaviors.  One young neighbor never ate at our home.   He subsisted on a diet of chicken nuggets alone.   I’m sad to see that he is now an obese young man.   Another young girl asked me what that whole bird was I had sitting in a roasting pan.  It was a chicken… And I once come across a kid at the check-out counter that could not recognize broccoli (!) so he couldn’t look up the PLU code.   It’s no wonder we are now in the midst of a health crisis with no change in sight.

When it comes to asparagus,  I always buy the bunch with the thinnest spears and fresh buds.    It’s just a personal preference, but any thickness is good.   An excellent provider of Vitamin K, folate, Vitamins C and A, asparagus is also a natural diuretic and is high in antioxidants.

This recipe combines the flavors or asparagus and Swiss-made Gruyère cheese.  They pair beautifully together and it’s no wonder – they are both common items in the Swiss kitchen.  Here I have added sliced cherry tomatoes to the mix for a beautiful and delicious presentation.

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Asparagus, tomato and Gruyère tart  adapted from a recipe by Martha Stewart

a little flour for the work surface

1 sheet frozen puff pastry

5½ ozs (2 cups) Gruyère cheese, grated

1½ pounds thin or medium asparagus

8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle.  Trim uneven edges.  Place pastry on a baking sheet (I line mine with a silpat).  With a sharp knife, lightly score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle.  Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings at 1/2-inch intervals.

Sprinkle pastry with Gruyère.  Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears to fit crosswise inside the tart shell. Arrange asparagus and tomato halves in a single layer over Gruyère.  Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake until spears are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Cut tart with a pizza cutter into desirable pieces.  Serve hot.

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Make sure you sprinkle some cheese on the edges too! 

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Prijatno!

6 comments:

  1. Dragana, moram priznati da nisam ljubitelj asparagusa, ali da bi ga sigurno u ovoj varijanti probala. Ovde je jako skup, još nisu krenuli da ga gaje, a mislim da bi lepo uspevao. Tako je do pre par godina brokoli bio papren, pa kad us svi počeli da ga gaje sada je iste cene kao karfiol. Odlična kombinacija!

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  2. Oh my goodness, that tart looks heavenly. I have the tomatoes and puff pastry, now all I need is asparagus. How sad that there are young people who don't recognize a common vegetable or know what a chicken looks like.

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  3. Wow. Everything you create looks like a piece of art. Any ideas on how to dress up Sweet Potato Biscuits? Love for you to leave a comment on my blog if you have any ideas!
    http://www.recipe4success.org/seedtoplate/2010/10/fun-in-the-fall.html

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  4. I was searching for some interesting vegetarian dishes and discovered you. This is exactly what I was looking for. So pretty, too.

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  5. I was searching for some interesting vegetarian recipes and discovered you. So pretty, too.

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  6. sve u vezi ove pite obožavam, sigurno ću je raditi

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