Goats cheese, cherry tomato and caramelised red onion tart

Tonight was a first, I served a veggie dinner and instead of the normal “where is the meat?” or “that was nice but it would have been even better with a sausage” comments from “the husband” he said: "that was actually quite nice!" Whoa, this is high praise from a meat loving man who is happy with a vegetarian dish for a side dish, starter or lunch but dinner equals some sort of meat, even if it is a token amount!

This is an open style tart using bought puff pastry, with no quiche style eggy mixture, easy and delicious.

Goats cheese, cherry tomato and caramelised red onion tart

Serves 4-6

You will need:
1 packet/block of puff pastry
2-3 tblspns  green or red pesto
1 tblspn olive oil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1dstspn sugar
200g ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
1-2 red peppers, sliced
250 g goats cheese (not soft)
Handful fresh basil

Method

Gently heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until soft and starting to brown, add the sugar and turn up the heat a bit, stir until caramelised. The onions should be soft and brownish but not burnt! Put to one side to cool.

Red onions are nearly caramelised

Pre heat your oven to 190 degrees (fan) and lightly flour a baking sheet.

Roll out puff pastry thinly to an oblong, place on baking sheet, wet edges and roll over once to form an edge.  Score the pastry lightly inside the edge (not all the way through.)

Spread the pesto over the pastry, then cover with the caramelised onions.

Arrange the tomatoes cut side up, interspersed with sliced peppers.

Cube/crumble the cheese and sprinkle over, tucking into gaps.

Grind over some black pepper, a pinch of rock salt if desired, and tear some basil leaves.

Doesn't it look beautiful?

Admire how lovely it all looks and bake for 20-25 minutes, until pastry is crisp and cheese nicely browned, no soggy bottoms allowed!

Goats Cheese Tart ...done!

Serve warm with salad and wait for the compliments to flood in. Tonight we broke the very strict rule of no TV at dinner time, it was agonising watching the British Men's gymnastic team go from stunning surprise silver to an amazing bronze, on a technicality, but my our boys did us proud and are true champions.

Goats cheese and cherry tomato tart

I secretly hoped my tart wouldn't be that popular and that I may have some left for my lunch tomorrow, no such luck! When L came in later from her evening shift (serving cheese at the deli counter) she also enjoyed it, but did manage to slot in the obligatory observation that it would be perfect with some parma ham/ prosciutto or chorizo in there too...some things never change! Then there was the ensuing discussion that it would have been better again without toms (S age 16) or red pepper (L age 19), it is impossible to keep everyone happy here unless it's lasagne...again!

Watching the Olympics is a perfect activity to accompany the latest knotty activity....nearly finished a...

round and round and round and...

but that is for another post another day! Answers on a postcard as to what it is do not win a prize!