Beet, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Tarts
These tarts topped with slices of ruby, golden, and striped chioggia beets are a cinch to make, especially since they’re composed on store-bought puff pastry. We baked one large tart for our photo shoot, but it’s just as easy to create six mini tarts before you pop them in the oven. You may cook the beets a day or two ahead if convenient.
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts toasted
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- ½ cup crumbled blue cheese such as Valley Shepherd's Crema de Blue, tightly packed, plus more for garnish
- 1 sheet 9-inch square puff pastry, thawed if frozen 3 medium beets, cooked (roasted or boiled), preferably mixed varieties such as ruby, chioggia, and golden
Instructions
- With chopping blade in small bowl of food processor, pulse nuts until finely chopped (but not ground). Remove 2 tablespoons chopped nuts, and set aside. Add butter and 1⁄2 cup blue cheese to nuts in processor, and pulse just until a thick paste forms.
- Heat oven to 400°F. Cut pastry in half, then cut each half into three equal strips to make 6 pastry rectangles. Arrange pastry pieces on large baking sheet, spaced well apart. With tines of fork, pierce center of each piece several times to prevent pastry from developing large air pockets during baking; the crust edges of each tart will then rise up around the filling.
- Spread a generous tablespoonful of nut paste evenly on each rectangle, leaving a 1⁄2-inch border of pastry around edges. Peel beets, and slice into 1⁄4-inch- thick rounds. Arrange beet slices, slightly overlapping, to cover nut filling.
- Bake 16 to 18 minutes on bottom rack of oven, until pastry edges are dark golden and flaky. Cool until warm or room temperature. Sprinkle with remaining chopped walnuts, garnish with more blue cheese, and serve.
Elaine Khosrova
Elaine Khorova is the original Editor-in-Chief of culture magazine and the current recipe writer extraordinaire. She resides in the Hudson Valley of New York where she is working on a book about the history of butter.
