Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella

Caprese tart with pesto and mozzarella

This very simple caprese tart is perfect for a successful, quick and easy-to-make meal. It takes only five minutes to prepare if you use a pesto sauce from a pot, and the tart is very good like that.

If you have 10 more minutes, it worth making a home-made pesto sauce: the flavours of basil, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil are better noticed, and it is very easy to do with a hand mixer.  The recipe I use come from a book from My Cooking Class collection, that I really like for the variety of recipes and detailed pictures to explain the recipe’s steps.

You can always prepare a pot of home-made pesto sauce in advance and keep it in the fridge a few days without any problem.

However, the base of this tart is a puff pastry so I advise you to buy it already made. Even if I usually prefer making my own pastry, the puff pastry takes a very long time to make and requires some skills, so I better let a “professional ” in charge of this part.

Besides the already-made version is very good too.

 

I like this recipe because:

– It has many advantages: quick, simple to make and very tasty.

– It matches perfectly with any type of meal: family, friends, for a picnic etc.

– Accompany the tart with a salad and a honey & mustard vinaigrette for a fresh summer meal.

 

Tricks:

– You can replace or add some the ingredients like cheddar, york ham, bacon, chorizo, mushrooms, dried tomatoes etc.

– Buy a basil plant if you can, it grows very easily and you will always have enough fresh basil leaves for cooking. It will also be much cheaper.

 


INGREDIENTS:

For the pesto sauce:

– 30g pine nuts

– 4 bunches fresh basil leaves (100g)

– 1 cloves garlic

– 10g walnuts (optional)

– Salt, pepper and grated cilantro seeds

– 30g parmesan

– 10cl olive oil

 

Tart:

– 1 puff pastry

– 4 or 5 tablespoons of pesto sauce

– 3 tomatoes

– 2 or 3 slices serrano or smoked ham

– 1 small red or green pepper

– 1 ball fresh mozzarella

– 100g grated Emmental or Comté

– Fresh or dried oregano

– A drizzle of olive oil

– Salt, Pepper, grated cilantro seeds and any other seasoning you like.


 

 

Caprese tart with pesto and mozzarella recipe

– Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

– Prepare the pesto sauce: grill the pine nuts in a pan until they  get brown. Throw all the nuts, basil, garlic and seasoning in a bowl and mix, adding little by little the parmesan and the olive oil until the sauce is smooth. You can add a bit of broth if you have to make the sauce more liquid.

– Extend the puff pastry on the baking sheet, with a kitchen paper below it, and cover it with pesto sauce.

– Add all the ingredients on the pastry: the ​​tomatoes and the pepper, sliced, the ham and the mozzarella cut into small pieces, and last the grated cheese.

– Season with oregano, salt, pepper, grated coriander seeds and a drizzle of olive oil.

– Bake the tart for 20 minutes or so, until the cheese begins to turn Brown and crispy.

This is ready !!! Bon appétit …

 

Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella

 

Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella

 

Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella

 

Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella
Caprese tart with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella

 

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