Frozen Puff Pastry - yipee

Just this week Mike has found out how quick it is to use ready made Puff Pastry. He now loves to make sausage rolls. He buys sausages from Woolworths, squeezes the meat out of the sausage skins onto his piece of pastry then rolls them up and pops them in the oven. I'm interested to see his next puff pastry experiments.

One recipe that is a savior when needing to impress, but having no time to prepare is the following taken from the Perk Bartrum Family Cookbook. (We also sometimes swap the tomatoes for slices of salami).

Nancy's Tomato & Pesto Tarts:


(makes 2 tarts)
150g (5oz) defrosted puff pastry
2 tablespoons of pesto
4 medium ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
approx. 8 basil leaves

Set the oven to 240 C/ 450 F. Put in a large baking sheet in the oven to get hot. Divide the pastry in two. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry large enough to make about an 18cm/8 inch round from it. Use a plate as a template. Prick each circle of pastry 4/5 times in the middle. Put a tablespoon of pesto in the middle of each piece of pastry and spread it out to about 2.5cm/1 inch from the edge.

Slice the tomatoes thinly, but not too thin and place about 4 slices on each pastry in the center overlapping slightly. Brush the tomatoes and the bare edge of the pastry with olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper and salt.

Lift the hot baking sheet from the oven and place the tarts onto it using a large flat fish slice.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until dark, golden brown. Drop the Basil leaves and a little extra olive oil onto the tarts and eat while still warm.


These are really delicious with a crisp garlic and iceberg lettuce salad.