Puff Pastry Tomato Tartlets

🌟 About This Recipe

• These puff pastry tomato tartlets are easy to make.
• Serve them as an appetizer, light lunch, or snack.

🥘 Ingredients

Please note that below is a guide for some of the ingredients we used in the recipe. The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Puff pastry - for convenience, we used ready-made prerolled frozen puff pastry that is about 25 cm (10 inches) square and weighed about 160 grams (5.6 ounces).

If you can't get pre-rolled puff pastry sheets, you can roll out a block of premade pastry and cut it to size.

If you can't get puff pastry, you can make half a recipe of our rough puff pastry.

Tomatoes - use cherry or grape tomatoes for this recipe - they are naturally sweet and look great as a topping.

Ricotta cheese - adds a creaminess to the tartlets and acts like glue to keep the cherry tomatoes in place. If you can't get ricotta cheese, you could replace it with cream cheese or make your own ricotta.

Flavorings for the ricotta cheese - spring onions, dried parsley, fresh basil, lemon rind, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper.

🍳 Instructions

Prepare the puff pastry

Step 1 - Working with chilled pastry. Cut the pastry into four equal squares and place these on a large baking sheet lined with baking paper. 

Next, use a pointed knife and a ruler as a guide to create a 2.5cm (1 inch) border around each pastry square, be careful not to cut through the pastry.

Step 2 - Use a fork to dock (poke holes) in the pastry square that lays inside the borders' edge - don't poke holes in the 2.5 cm (1 inch) border.

Step 3 - Use a pastry brush and brush the edges with a lightly beaten egg. 

If the pastry has warmed up before, while preparing it, put it in the fridge to chill before baking (refer to recipe notes below).

Place in a hot oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown.  

Step  4 - Place the whole cherry tomatoes into a bowl, add oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss well to coat, and transfer to a lined baking tray.

Place in a hot oven and roast for 12 – 15 minutes or until the tomatoes soften and burst.

Make the ricotta spread

Step  5 - Place the ricotta cheese, spring onions, dried parsley, basil leaves, zest, and lemon juice into a small bowl and mix well. Taste for salt and add to taste.

Put it together

Step  6 - If the center of the pastry has puffed up, use the back of a spoon to push it down.

Step 7 - Spread about ¼ of the cheese mixture into the center of each puff pastry square.

Step 8 - Top with warm cherry tomatoes and garnish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and basil leaves. Serve immediately. 

💭 Recipe Tips

Puff pastry must be cold before baking

If the pastry has warmed up (which can happen on a hot day) put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes before baking because it needs to be cold when baked.

👪 Serving Size

One puff pastry tomato tartlet is a serving.

🍬 Calories Per Serve

A single serving is about 336 calories and has about 24 grams of fat.

🥗 Serving Suggestions

These puff pastry tomato tartlets go well with a simple leafy green salad or a bowl of thick soup like our sweet potato and pumpkin soup.

🌡️ Storage

These are best eaten on the day of making because if left for too long go soggy.

📝 Frequently Asked Questions