This savory asparagus tart recipe is delicious soft asparagus on a flaky buttery puff pastry crust with cottage cheese, mozzarella, dried herbs, roasted scallions and topped with pine nuts. It’s a perfect addition to your table for spring brunches.
We love roasted asparagus at my place. Just simple and delicious side dish. Occasionally I love to make this Asparagus Tart too.
I have made many variations with ricotta, gruyere cheese, even many other cheeses would taste great. Infact, recently I have been seeing people obsessed with cottage cheese so I decided to use cottage cheese. Infact, we love cottage cheese. We always add it to a wrap recipe I used to make. It tastes good too.
A simple tart also taste great but to make it more flavorful I have few other ingredients too like charred or roasted scallions, I even roasted the asparagus slightly as it becomes more tender and develops nice flavor compared to raw asparagus.
This tart is ready in literally 30-40 minutes. It can be a great addition to your table for Easter celebrations, Mother’s Day or just a light lunch. That’s what we did. I added a side of salad and enjoyed this tart as dinner.
What’s not to love earthy asparagus, protein rich and gooey cheese and flaky pastry packed with so much flavor with just little ingredients.
You can drizzle balsamic glaze on top of the tart before serving or shredded parmesan or pecorino cheese. I am already planning to make this again for brunch with our cousins. I will be making some carrot cupcakes, frittata, salad and some cornmeal pancakes.
Tart makes a nice appetizer too for a dinner party, just cut into smaller bite sized squares.
Ingredients Needed for this Tart:
Puff Pastry – you need 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed in advance (follow the package directions) Pepperidge Farm is very well known brand
Cheese – Cottage cheese and mozzarella are two cheeses I have used. You can use ricotta, gruyere etc. Ricotta will give similar taste, but gruyere will give slightly different taste. Remember that.
Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese is optional, if you want to add once the tart is baked.
Asparagus – Use fresh thin asparagus spears, as they would bake easily and have tenderness. I did roast the asparagus lightly in oil but that’s totally optional. I like the light roast on asparagus.
Scallions – again, I roasted them for quick 2 minutes in some olive oil. They can be added without roasting too. It really depends on your taste and preference.
Dried Herbs – Use some fresh thyme or as I did some Italian seasonings, and it adds so much flavor. A
Other ingredients – dried garlic powder, salt, black pepper and red chili flakes.
Dijon Mustard– I have used it, but it is totally optional. If you do not have it at home, just skip it.
How to Make this Tart:
It’s very easy and simple, once the puff pastry is thawed, we roll it out. Score the pastry and add the filling. While the puff pastry is thawing roast the scallions and if roasting asparagus then do so and let it cool down. Infact, you can do this step in advance too.
Once, the filling is added; all that is to do is to bake the tart. How easy it is.
Tips/Suggestions:
Pick asparagus which is thin as it will cook better and evenly. To trim the asparagus, take one stalk and try to snap the bottom end. It will snap off easily. Try to do it evenly if possible, so that when you are placing it on tart, it looks uniform.
Make sure to thaw puff pastry for about 20 minutes, but don’t let it be completely thaw. Orelse you will not be able to work with it and it won’t puff up into those crispy layers. Puff Pastry can be thawed overnight in the refrigerator too.
You can use any other cheese other than cottage cheese but remember they will taste different and melt in a different way, but still very delicious.
If you are making it for a gathering, you can assemble it and chill it covered with a plastic wrap until ready to bake. That way, you can serve it warm along with other foods.
Another Tart recipe to try out while we talking about Tarts.
Asparagus Cheese Tart
Ingredients
- 1 Sheet Puff pastry thawed.
- 4-5 Scallions chopped sautéed.
- 1 pound Thin Asparagus stems trimmed sautéed/raw
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 3/4 cup Cottage Cheese
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup Cup Mozzarella
- 1/2 tsp Chili flakes
- 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Italian herbs dried
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Pine nuts
- Fresh herbs
Instructions
Filling
- In a pan on medium heat, add olive oil and saute chopped scallions and then remove them and saute asparagus. This step is totally optional. But it adds extra flavor. Let it cool down.
- In a bowl, add cottage cheese, herbs, Dijon mustard, salt, black pepper, chili flakes and roasted scallions. Give it a mix.
Assemble
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Lightly flour a wooden board, unfold the thawed puff pastry. Lightly roll it with the help of rolling pin just enough to stretch it out.
- Once rolled, transfer it to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to score on the edges leaving 1 inch border or edges, this frames the pastry, and this is where we will add our filling.
- Using a fork, poke in the center of the puff pastry, leaving the border as it is. This will help the puff pastry not poof up while baking where the filling is added.
- Spread the filling evenly in the scored area on puff pastry in between.
- Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese.
- Place the trimmed asparagus in a single layer and sprinkle some pine nuts. Pine nuts are optional. I love the texture it gives.
Bake
- Bake the easy asparagus cheese tart at 400 F for 25 minutes or until it is golden brown in color.
- Let it cool down for few minutes before serving. You can serve it slightly warm as it will taste best that way.
