Savory Mini Tart Recipe from Avignon
It’s been a long time since I posted a recipe on my blog. During 2020, I started brainstorming a category called Travel from Home and wanted to highlight recipes inspired by our travels. Unfortunately, work became harder than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t do nearly as much with it as I hoped to during that time. However, I haven’t given up. Most recently, I hosted a birthday dinner for my mom at our home. I decided to try and create this tart recipe from Avignon as one of my hors d’oeuvres.
If I think about what I’m most proud of as it relates to our travels, it’s definitely how we’ve grown with food and wine. I’m very proud of how we can order through a menu now. We have a couple of strategies that we use when we go new places. We tend to look for a high-risk dish and a low-risk dish. This allows us to always push ourselves to try something new or different.
When we were visiting Avignon this summer, it was quite warm and we didn’t feel up to doing full meals. We ended up visiting several wine bars. We fell in love with Le 46 because of its extensive wine list and their small plates. This savory tart was incredible and we ordered more than a few of them during our stay. While I wouldn’t completely consider this tart a “high risk order,” it was definitely something that we weren’t sure what to expect. I thought it would be more like a quiche or the tapas in Porto that we tried last year.
While mine didn’t turn out quite as beautiful as the one at Le 46, it is still a fantastic appetizer that is sure to impress your guests. The crispy prosciutto and the multiple layers give the impression of being more difficult to make than it actually is, too.
Tips for Making this Tasty Tart Recipe from Avignon
While I cannot say that this is a definitively French or Provencal dish, there are a few ways to make it a little more authentic to what we had in Avignon.
My first suggestion would be to bring home black olive tapenade from Maison Bremond 1830. We visited Maison Bremond during a food tour in Paris. Our kitchen is regularly stocked with their products from Provence because of that tour. It’s often one of our first stops when we arrive in France so that we can DIY our own picnics. There are several locations throughout France and even one in Avignon. It makes it relatively easy to find these tasty souvenirs from Provence. I found that the flavors of Provence were widely used at wine bars in Annecy, too. We enjoyed the black olive tapenade and garlic with Provencal herbs there, too.
My second suggestion is to find fresh sun-dried tomatoes. Our Central Market often sells them in the bulk fresh food section. They are far better than the jarred sun-dried tomatoes. You can use the ones in the jar, but fresh always tastes better!
Tomato, Olive & Prosciutto Mini Tarts
Ingredients
- 16 slices prosciutto
- 1 jar black olive tapenade
- 1 jar sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
- 1 box puff pastry sheets
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a 4 inch round cookie cutter as a guide, place a single slice of prosciutto inside the ring. Prosciutto does not need to be flat. Remove ring and place prosciutto slices an inch a part. Cook for 15 minutes or until prosciutto reaches desired crispness. Set aside to cool and firm up.
- Roll out puff pastry sheets on parchment paper. Cut into rounds using 6 inch round cookie cutter. Cover with parchment paper and another cookie sheet to prevent pastry from rising. Baking for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Drain sun-dried tomatoes while cooking tarts. Slice tomatoes into 2 inch slivers. You do not want them to saturate the pastry.
- Spread a thin layer of black olive tapenade over cooked pastry. Garnish with sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto.
- Serve immediately or keep warm in oven prior to serving.
