Puff pastry with Swiss cheese, bacon and asparagus. Over the past months, I have enjoyed cooking with ingredients readily found in my well stocked pantry or fridge. Using either canned, fresh or frozen vegetables, with occasional left-overs, meals rarely required a last-minute outing to our nearby grocery store. With some intuition it is fun to combine flavors, textures, and colors and even meet the challenge to cook dishes in less than twenty minutes, from start to seating.
One ingredient that I try to always have on hand is frozen puff pastry sheets. This is one item that I don’t find critical to make from scratch. In fact, the ready-made sheets are light and have an airy texture that when topped with a variety of ingredients and baked till golden brown are exquisite.
I have tried many fillings when baking tarts, and each time I am surprised by the results, however among my favorites are mushrooms. They are attractive fungi and not vegetables, as “they have no leaves, roots or seeds and don’t need light to grow,” but despite the name I love all kinds: white button, chanterelle, crimini, enoki, porcini, portabello, shiitake, and delicious springtime morels. The preparation of mushrooms is simple, they may be chopped, but typically they are sliced and gently sautéed in butter with garlic or herbs. Their soft texture and deep flavors are wonderful alone or as a complement which enhances the tart’s other ingredients. A few of my favorite combinations are:
Fennel, olive, and goat cheese tart
Gruyere sweet peppers tart
Gruyere, mushrooms, zucchini and tomato tart
Gruyere and mushroom tart
Swiss cheese, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and ham tart
Swiss cheese and mushroom tart
Swiss cheese, mushrooms, leeks and corn tart
Mushroom, bacon, leek and mozzarella tart
Prosciutto, mushrooms and asparagus
How to make it
The other day, I had—in addition to the traditional pasteurized processed Swiss cheese slices—some wonderful long thin green asparagus, a yellow sweet pepper and five slices of bacon. No mushrooms available this time!
To proceed, I zapped the frozen puff pastry in the microwave to thaw it, laid it out on a lightly floured surface, and gently rolled it out to flatten and extend the pastry to obtain the needed rectangular shape. Then, I cut the dough in half and fit it over a long baking tart pan, while leaving the other section of dough for a future tart or some delicious French Palmiers—often called elephant ears. Of course, the other half of the dough could have been used to create a lattice pattern or a cover by folding it over the ingredients and creating openings in the shape of your choices (to let the steam off). But this time, I was looking for an open face aesthetic.
To compose the tart on the dough, I placed three to four cheese slices on the bottom of the pastry, then I laid eight to ten bacon slices that I had pre-cooked. On top, I added four to five thinly sliced uncooked yellow peppers. Finally, after cutting off the lower white parts of the asparagus stems (about one to two inches), I quickly stir-fried them in a non-stick skillet over medium high heat in a little olive oil with a touch of minced garlic and a sprinkle of Kosher salt.
When the asparagus started to brown slightly (three to four minutes) but were still al dente—or to your desired tenderness—I removed the vegetables and laid the spears in the same direction as the baking tart, all the while overlapping their crowns in the center of the dish. Because I didn’t cover the tart with pastry I did not apply an egg wash to the edges, but did lightly spray it with some Pam Butter Spray. The dish went onto the middle rack of a preheated 450F oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry turned a light golden brown. Oh, by the way, when it was nearly done, I set the tart on the bottom of the oven to assure that the tart would be nice and crisp underneath. Be very careful that it doesn’t burn!
Conclusion
The end result was unctuous and offered wonderful flavors with a first taste of the crispness of the vegetables followed by the melted cheese enveloping the bacon, ending with the buttery taste of the pastry.Steps to create this easy bacon, cheese, yellow peppers and asparagus tart
Image 4: Alternative tart with prosciutto, cheese, and asparagus with topping (added 03.09.2021) Author’s Collection
PS: Snapshots of other tart ideasOpen face mushroom and onion tart. Pastry encased mushroom and onion tart
Image 6: Mushroom tart with decorative pastry (Author’s Collection)
Image 8: Leeks, prosciutto and mozzarella tart with decorative pastry
Checkerboard and loose lattice along with heart openings as tart tops. Author’s Collection
Image 10: Prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella (added 11.04.2020) Author’s Collection
Image 11: Mushroom, bacon, leek and mozzarella tart (added 02.09.2021)
Image 12: Cheese and sweet peppers with cardamon seeds tart (added 03.09.2021) Author’s Collection
Image 14: Parsley Pesto, prosciutto, zucchini, caraway seeds, sundriedtomatoes, fresh basil, and goat cheese -added 08.01.2022 (author’s collection)
Image 15: Swiss cheese slices, prosciutto, grilled yellow zucchini, basil, and when baked, sprinkle of fresh feta cheese. I forgot to baste the pastry with egg yolk, thus not as golden as in the other images. Added 08.01.2022 (Author’s collection)
