Antipasto Tarts

I adapted these tarts from a recipe in some cook book or other years ago and they have been a great stand-by ever since. The real beauty of these is that generally I have all the ingredients in the house, so if I find myself at a loose end for dinner, I can whip these up without a trip to the store. And they are delicious too!

Ingredients

Frozen Puff pastry (each sheet makes two tarts)

Pesto - homemade or jarred (substitute any other sort of base you have handy - olive tapenade, a brush of olive oil sprinkled with herbs and/or garlic, tomato paste etc)

Toppings, any selection of the following - fresh tomato, fresh mushrooms, marinated artichoke, marinated red capsicum (peppers), olives, marinated eggplant, marinated mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes etc

Feta cheese - marinated or fresh (I have also used goat's cheese with good results)

Defrost pastry sheets, then cut in half. I like to use kitchen scissors (you will find that I am very fond of using kitchen scissors for myriad purposes). Place each piece of pastry on a baking sheet covered in non-stick baking paper or lightly oiled aluminium foil. Fold in pastry edges creating a border of about 2 cms (3/4 inch).

Cover each pastry sheet with pesto. Chop/slice all topping ingredients. My personal preference is fresh sliced tomato and mushrooms, sliced olives and chopped marinated artichoke hearts. Top your tarts. Crumble cheese over the top. Put into a pre-heated 400F oven. Bake for about 20 mins, you want the pastry cooked, edges puffing up, but be careful not to burn the tops. I like to serve these with a crisp green salad in summer, steamed veggies in the winter. Tonight I served them with steamed green beans and wilted spinach. Enjoy!