Foods with Friends: Goats Cheese Tart with Red Pepper and Caramelized Onions

These easy and (relatively) ready-to-go tarts are a great main course for an impromptu dinner party. We tested them out in exactly that situation. They are straight forward and you can even prepare most the steps ahead of time, so the hour before you have people over is not one filled with stress but ease- would you believe it? Having had four amazing girls (Andrea, Hannah Julia C, and Julia M) over for dinner recently, we served these tarts with some freshly tossed salad (rocket and baby spinach) and some roasted honey-balsamic glazed broccoli.

As we giggled over wine and showed them the work on our new blog, we knew that night and this recipe had to go up on a Food with (great) Friends post.




Prep time 30-40min
Cooking time 20min (check pastry pack)
Serves 6 (perfectly)

Ingredients:
3 red bell peppers
5-6 red onions
150 grams of goats cheese (or around 4.5 ounces)
pastry puff (we used organic white spelt prepackaged)

Wash the red peppers thoroughly (especially if not organic) then cut the peppers in half and put them (open) face down on a tray in the oven, which will be set at your preferred roasting temperature (roughly 200 -220 C or 400- 450 F). Some people prefer to brown them over an open flame, but we think they caramelized and sweetened nicely in the oven/grill. Do NOT them burn. We suggest cooking them anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes, and watch them carefully. You want the sink to start bubbling and even brown, but once the skin looks black you are treading a fine line towards burnt peppers-ville. When the peppers are done put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (or put them in a brown bag) so that the skins start to peel away. When the skins peel away, clean them up and leave them whole (as they are).

As the peppers roast, caramelize the red onions in a pan with olive oil. We suggest cutting the onions into long elegant strands. You can do this by first cutting the onion in half and then slicing it vertically (if you placed the onion’s top/bottom facing towards your body, perpendicular to it. Caramelizing onions takes a good 20-40min if you do it properly. Wait for them to be completely limp, purple and sweet.

Prepare the pastry and cut it into 6 even pieces, making sure to leave a ¼ inch border on each piece that no ingredients are near the edge of the pastry. Hopefully we will be mastering a homemade pastry recipe soon enough and post that up for you guys!

First place the onions down on the pastry, then the red pepper, and then a nice slice of goats cheese. Bake for 10-15 at 200 C depending on oven. You want them golden and the cheese to melt nicely but not completely- then you know they are perfectly done.

Enjoy, with friends of course!

Charlotte & Jacqueline