Let's Try a New Recipe! Spinach Tart!

After reading the premise behind the blog 101 Cookbooks, I was inspired to try a recipe from one of my many cookbooks. I own at least 30 cookbooks (!), a collection of family recipes and recipes I have concocted. I generally use "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking," by Marcella Hazan or my parents’ recipes (my dad is a chef and my mom is an awesome cook).

I leafed through "Everyday Food: Great Food Fast," by Martha Stewart Living Magazine and found 2 recipes for vegetable tarts using frozen puff pastry dough. [Disclaimer:The Cooking Accountant is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.] One is a Mushroom Tart with mushrooms, spinach and goat cheese. The other was an Asparagus Gruyere Tart and the link has a video showing you how to prepare the tart, including how to roll out and score the dough. I rolled out the dough but I didn't use a ruler to measure or trim the edges because that is overkill (I just folded them over).

Since I didn't have mushrooms and goat cheese on hand, I decided to improvise and create a spinach tart. I followed the steps in the recipe but instead sautéed half an onion and a package of frozen chopped spinach as the topping with olive oil, salt and pepper. It came out really good and wasn't at all difficult to prepare.

I think you could make great appetizers by cutting the dough into little squares (or other shapes) and placing the topping in the middle. I might try this next time I have people over.

I have used phyllo dough many, many times, but I have never used frozen puff pastry sheets that you have to roll out. Have you used frozen puff pastry sheets and what did you make? Let me know!