Barefoot Favorite Food Find

You could call me lazy, but I'm really just multitasking...this week I've combined Favorite Food Find Friday with the Barefoot Blogger challenge.

Barefoot Bloggers are a group of bloggers that twice a month prepare a (almost always) delicious recipe from the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. This weeks recipe was selected by Anne of Anne Strawberry. She chose Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook.

I had a few glitches with this week's recipe...
1. I forgot to take a picture of the completed recipe.
2. It didn't really matter because I forgot to put the memory card into the camera so I actually have NO pictures of my version! So my apologies in advance for the lack of visuals.

I would make the recipe again but I have to leave in a couple of hours...my daughter and I are going to NYC to see Billy Elliot and she is competing in an Irish Dancing competition (feis) there tomorrow...so no time.

Today's favorite food find is...

(I was able to just take a picture of the cheese because I had some leftover!) It's Andes Panquehue Cheese Chilean Pepper. Now why would this be the choice when clearly the recipe called for goat cheese? Well, I honestly do not like goat cheese and could not bear to use it so I made a substitution. Since last night was my night to host Bunco at my house I prepared the recipe as individual appetizers. I used a round cookie cutter and cut small circle in the dough and transformed the recipe into bite sized tarts with a spicy chili pepper flavor.

You can find the original recipe here. The following is my adaptation...

Spicy Tomato Cheese Tarts adapted from The Barefoot Contessa's Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

1 package puff pastry, defrosted

Red pepper flavored olive oil

1 cup minced shallots

1 garlic clove, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons dry white wine

4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

4 ounces Andes Panquehue Chilean Pepper Cheese (or you may substitute Pepper Jack cheese), coarsely chopped

10-15 grape tomatoes, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

Unfold the puff pastry sheets on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11x14 inch rectangle. Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter cut the dough into circles (you should be able to get about 24 circles from each sheet) Place the circles on two parchment paper lined baking sheets and chill until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Heat 3 tablespoon of red pepper flavored olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the shallots and garlic. Saute for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the shallots are translucent and the skillet is almost dry. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper along with the 3 tablespoons of white wine; cook for an additional 10 minutes or just until the onions are lightly browned.

Using a small round biscuit cutter, gently score a circle onto each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the smaller circle with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a bit of Parmesan on each round staying inside the scored border.

Divide the shallot mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Divide the cheese between the tarts arranging on top of the shallots. Place one or two grape tomato slices on top of the cheese in each tart. Drizzle with additional red pepper oil and sprinkle with cilantro, salt and pepper. Sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese over each.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven.

Makes about 48 appetizer sized tarts.