Prosciutto Di San Daniele Del Friuli Topped Goat Cheese Tart - Impressive, Quick & Easy.


I love French goat cheese especially the one which looks like a log. These days we can stay off the extremely strict eating habits and have a little bit of high fat content cheese, a wee bit of sugar in the Italian Panettone which we enjoy so much with our coffee in the morning.

I would like to propose cheese lovers a delicious and easy tart filled with a mixture of this soft French goat cheese, cream cheese and with a little fresh mint leaves as an appetizer during these holidays.....

 Ingredients: 
Serves 8

For the filling:
-  500 gr of soft goat cheese of your liking.
-  500 gr of soft a mixture of any cream cheeses you enjoy.
-  ¼ cup of washed and dried fresh mint leaves whole. (Do not cut otherwise they loose their freshness).
-  8 paper thin slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele Del Friuli each rolled up for decoration at the end.
-  No salt no pepper.

For the tart shell / shortcrust pastry - pâte brisée:

-  250 gr all purpose flour.
-  150 gr good quality fresh butter.
-  1 whole egg.
-  1 Tbsp. mustard.
-  1 tsp. salt (optional).
-  1 tsp. sugar (optional).
- OR a ready made shortcrust bought fresh or frozen from you supermarket.

Method:
-  Heat oven to 180 degrees C.
-  Make the tart shell first.
-  Using your mixer flat beater, mix flour, butter, egg, mustard, salt and sugar until well  mixed and a nice soft dough is obtained.
-  Form a ball out of this dough, wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for about half an hour to rest.
- When time is up, insert dough into a 24 cm mold with detachable base (the base is actually 23.5 cm)
and by using your hands flatten the dough to cover base and sides and further up.
-  Make a bunch of holes with a fork to prevent the pastry from swelling during baking.
-  Bake blind (with nothing inside it) for 15 to 20 minutes.

In the meantime:
-  You mix all the cheeses well using the flat blade of your mixer.
-  Add the mint and mix.
-  When the tart is ready, take out of the oven, let cool slightly.
-  Add the cheese/mint mixture.
-  Flatten surface evenly around.


-  Return filled tart to the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes using the broiler at ¼ turn.
-  When the surface of the tart has a nice golden brown color take out from oven.
-  Let cool until everybody is seated.

-  Serve with two rolled up paper thin cut slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele Del Friuli on each one of the eight slices.

Enjoy your starter with any wine you please even with retsina.
Stelio

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