Recipe: Tomato Basil Pesto Tartlets

This recipe for Tomato Basil Pesto Tartlets is slightly adapted from a Pillsbury recipe. Their recipe uses refrigerated biscuits… I like to use pie crust because it’s so easy to use and the tart cup isn’t as doughy. They also mix all the ingredients together…. I find it better to add each ingredient into the tartlet shell….

These can be made ahead and frozen…. Just freeze them in the mini muffin pans… when frozen… turn out of the pan and layer in an airtight container with waxed paper between the layers. When you’re ready to make them… remove them from the freezer and put them into the mini muffin tins and thaw… bake as the recipe directs.

These tasty little treats are a perfect snack while watching the big game… or adding it to your list of foods for a party. It would also make a terrific appetizer… just make them larger using a larger biscuit cutter and use a regular muffin tin… increase your baking time by about 3-4 minutes… keep an eye on them … you want the cheese melted and edges slightly brown.

You can use homemade or commercially made pesto…. whichever you prefer.

TIPS:

I would highly recommend you use finely shredded mozzarella cheese… since the tartlets are small… the finer shredded cheese is easier to work with.

Plum tomatoes are easier to seed and work with than other varieties of tomatoes… simply cut in half and use the tip of an ice tea spoon… the seeds remove easily.

I use my medium size biscuit cutter to cut the rounds of pie crust…. My biscuit cutter is approximately 2 ¼ inch in size.

Each pie crust makes about 14 tartlets.



This recipe bakes at 375 degrees F, the same as my mini quiche recipe…. so you can bake them in the same oven… this will save you time and make it easy to have a variety of appetizers ready at the same time…. just make sure you use separate mini muffin tins for each recipe since the quiches take longer…. This way you can remove the Tomato Pesto Tartlets when their baking time is up.



Recipe: Tomato Pesto Tartlets

All you need:

1 package refrigerated pie crust
2 plum tomatoes, seeded then diced
¾ cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
½ cup basil pesto
Cooking Spray (olive oil preferred)

All you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray the mini muffin tins with cooking oil spray and set aside.

On a flat surface dusted with flour, unroll the pie crusts.

Using a biscuit cutter cut the pie crust into small rounds.



Gently push the rounds into the mini muffin tin cups.

Add about ½ teaspoon of diced tomato into each mini muffin cup.







Add about 1 ½ teaspoons pesto to each cup.







Add a small amount of shredded cheese on top of the basil.

Add a small amount of shredded parmesan cheese on top of each.




Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges of the pie crusts are slightly brown.