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Recipe from 2023: Mini Tomato & Feta Tarts

5 | 2 reviews
These tomato tarts are personal-sized and perfect for serving at parties, brunches, or gatherings. They're also pretty fun to make just for yourself, too. The basil oil feta makes them unique, while the tomato makes them celebrate all the best that summer has to offer.
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh basil leaves
  • 1 & 1/2 cup avocado oil or olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon champagne vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup feta, preferably stored in brine, then crumbled
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 large heirloom tomato
  • 1 all-butter pie crust, or sheet of store-bought puff pastry
  • 1 large egg, for egg wash
  • Flaky salt
  • 1 ounce frozen feta crumbles, optional, for grating on top

Instructions 

  1. Begin by making the basil oil (and this can be done days ahead). Bring a large pot of water to boil and prepare an ice bath to the side. dd a large pinch of salt, then boil the basil for 15-30 seconds. Immediately transfer it to the ice bath.
  2. Squeeze out any excess water from the basil with your hands, then transfer it to a blender. Add the oil and blend until incredibly smooth, this takes me about 2-3 minutes of blending.
  3. Strain the oil through a sieve into a medium sized bowl. Discard any pulp. Season the oil in the bowl with the vinegar and kosher salt. Set this aside, this oil will last in the fridge for 2 weeks.
  4. Whisk together 1/4 cup of the basil oil with the feta. Add a few cracks of black pepper and set this in the fridge while you prepare the pie crust.
  5. Slice the heirloom tomato crosswise, starting from the bottom. This should give you about 6-8 big, round slices.
  6. Roll out the pie crust until it is as thin as you'd have it for a normal pie. Use a bench scraper to carefully cut out circles that can encircle each tomato slice. You may have to cut some circles, then re-roll out any remaining pie scraps and cut new circles, continuing until you have enough pieces.
  7. Dust each side of each crust with flour. Then place the feta mixture in the center of each circle. Add one tomato slice on top, then fold up the edges as you would a galette.
  8. Place all the individual tarts on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 375°F.
  9. When the oven is ready, whisk together the egg and brush all the edges of the crusts with a thin layer of the egg wash. Sprinkle the crust and tomato with flakey salt.
  10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crusts are deeply golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.
  11. Take out a crumble of frozen feta (see recipe notes) and grate it on top of each tart using a rasp-style grater. Now they are ready to serve!

Notes

A note on the frozen feta -
I now keep a small box of feta crumbles in my freezer at all times. It keeps forever, and the feta is perfect for a quick grating over any bowl, salad or tart! You can buy pre-crumbled feta for this, since freezing the feta stored in brine might be a bit of a nightmare. When you are ready to use it, just pull out a small crumble, and use a rasp-style grater to grate it over what you're eating. It's a fun food trick, and a total game-changer.