Tomato and Pecorino puffs are a fancy way of saying a circular piece of puff pastry with tomato and cheese on it. But however you say it, it tastes delicious and makes you look like the fanciest of chefs.
I like this recipe for two reasons. Firstly it is super easy to make with very little ingredients. Secondly it showcases fresh in season produce. When you buy a tomato that is grown in the warm sun and not put on a truck for days, the taste is incomparable. There is actual flavour as compared to those sad watery mushy tomatoes you can find on the grocery shelves in January.
As just mentioned the process to make these puffs is very straight forward. The hardest part is remembering to take your puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw. Once you do, make sure the dough doesn’t get too warm. To help have nice fluffy layers, the pastry needs to stay relatively cool.
Once your dough is ready, now comes the task of making a perfect circle. Much easier to achieve with an object than free handing. So start searching through your cupboards to find a bowl or cup with a diameter slightly larger than your tomato slice. If you have different sized tomatoes, use more than one type of cup! Once indented you will need to use a knife to scrape away the excess dough around the circle.
The next step is blind baking, or baking your pastry by itself. As I am not a proficient baker I do the old stab the centre with a fork a bunch of times method. But if you have some beads you want to put in the middle go for it. The point of this step is to ensure the middle doesn’t rise and flake up-because that is where the tomato is going to sit, leaving a nice raised ring around it. As the tomato has a large water content, the dough underneath will have a hard time baking fully. Thus, pre baking the pastry is an important step you do not want to miss.
Once you master this technique (which shouldn’t take much!) you can use this process to create other delicious puffs. Like substitute the tomato for sliced apple, or a caramelized onion and goat cheese centre or even a full dessert version with blueberries and a sugared ring instead of cheese. The options really are endless when it comes to puff pastry.
Tomato and Pecorino Puffs
Ingredients
- 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
- 2 large fresh tomatoes, sliced (beefsteak, heirloom)
- 1/3 cup pecorino romano, finely grated
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 egg, for egg wash
- chives, finely chopped for garnish
- S+P
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Using a bowl or large mug create circles in the pastry dough (they should be slightly larger than the size of your tomato slices). Carefully lift these circles onto the baking tray.
- Step 2 Using a fork, pierce the dough in the middle of each of the circles. You should end up with a bunch of small indents where the tomato will end up sitting. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Step 3 Take the pastry out of the oven and spread a small dab of mustard over the middle section, top with tomato slice.
- Step 4 Crack egg in a small bowl and whisk. Brush egg around the dough not covered by the tomato slice. Sprinkle cheese (as much or as little as you like) around dough circles.
- Step 5 Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Top with chives and enjoy!
Thanks for this. We need to bring an appetizer and this will be perfect!