Easy Zen Tomato Tarts

In the summer tomatoes are so delicious. Juicy, sweet and filled with flavor.  I grabbed some at the farmer's market last week and wanted to use them up by making these Tomato Tarts. I made 3 tarts; one with goat cheese, one with parmesian and one with some white cheddar. The thing that makes these so special is the seasoning. This month our challenge from the   The Fennel Friday Cooking Club (hosted is by The Pollen Ranch and Kimberly, at The Hungry Goddess.)  was to make a vegetable dish using The Pollen Ranch's Zen-Sational Seasoning Blend as an ingredient. We all post our recipes to the Fennel Friday group to share our recipes.  Head on over to check out the other delicious thing we all came up with!
These take about 10 minutes to make (not including the thawing time for the puff pastry and are baked and ready to eat in 30 minutes.  

These are perfect with a salad for a lunch or a light dinner or sliced up into small pieces as an appetizer. You can make them up to 2 hours ahead of when you want to serve them. They are just as good at room temperature as they are warm. 

Click Here for a Printable Version of This Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of puff pastry- thawed
• 3 large tomatoes. I used Roma
• 1 tsp of Zen-Sational Seasoning blend
• 2 tbs basil chopped of chiffonaded ( fancy way of saying cut into thin little strips) I use scissors!
• 1/2 cup of the cheese or cheeses of your choice. 
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425º
2. Unroll the puff pastry sheet and cut into 3 strips
3. Place the strips onto a parchment lined or greased cookie sheet
4. With a sharp knife, cut just into the top part of the puff pastry all the way around leaving about 1/3 of an inch between the score line and the edges


5. With a fork, prick holes all over the center of sheet staying inside the score lines- this keeps the center part from puffing up while allowing the edges to rise up
6. Brush the center with some olive oil
7. Slice the tomatoes up into thin slices and chop up the basil
8. Arrange the basil pieces evenly over the pastry


9. Sprinkle each strip evenly with 1/3-1/2 tsp of Zen-Sational Seasoning
10. Arrange the tomatoes in a line down the middle
11. Top the tomatoes with 2-3 TBS of the cheese of your choice.
12. Place them into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Serve these warm or at room temperature.  

                  

The Zen-Sational blend is made up of Pollen Ranch Fennel Pollen, Sumac, Sesame Seeds, Orange Peel, Ginger, Fleur de Sel (Sea Salt), Yellow Curry, Savory Leaf,  and Cayenne. It is not hot but adds a lovely earthy warmth to the tomatoes!  It's a perfect blend!