Fall has officially arrived. I’ve put the garden to bed, planted my garlic for next year, and Dan cleaned the gutters. Our Halloween count was normal (@30), and the neighbors still have that creepy 6+ foot cat with glowing green eyes directly in my view. With luck, they’ll take it down soon.
The world is a little quieter; Dan’s dad passed away on October 23rd and there’s lots going on to prepare for his Celebration of Life. He was a kind and wonderful soul who I enjoyed spending time with. We celebrated many a Friday evening on our back deck having dinner and great conversation - some spirited and some reminiscing. We miss him but know he is in a much better place.
Before the temps decided to take a drop, we harvested the remaining green tomatoes; most of them were cherries, but we found a few German Pinks and Brandywine. I had a sheet of puff pastry in the fridge and some vegan pesto in the freezer so I decided to make a tomato, pesto, and vegan cheese tart with our mushroom soup. The pastry was flaky, the tomatoes were sweet and juicy, and the pesto was the perfect addition.
Ingredients:
1 sheet puff pastry - thawed
1 - 2 large tomatoes - thinly sliced
2 - 3 T basil pesto
3 oz shredded vegan cheese
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (as you can see in the photo I forgot this step - it was a little messy).
Roll out the pastry so that it fits on the baking sheet (but not to the edges). Using a sharp knife create an edge around the pastry; don’t cut all the way through.
Using a pastry brush, spread the pesto on the pastry keeping inside the edges you created above. Thinly slice the tomatoes and place them on a paper towel to absorb some of the juice. Place the tomato slices on top of the pesto and sprinkle the cheese on top of the tomatoes.
Bake until the pastry until it is puffed up and browned.
Enjoy!