Pesto, Olive, Feta and Mediterranean Vegetable Tart Recipe



This rich and flavoursome vegetable tart recipe makes a dish that is a visual delight - packed with colour and using different sizes and shapes of vegetables and cheese. It is super easy to make and gives an explosion of tastes when you eat it! The vegetables listed below work well, but feel free to switch it around and use whatever roasted vegetables that you have in your fridge or store cupboard. Either use a jar of anti-pasti chargrilled vegetables such as the peppers directed in the recipe below, or use leftover roasted vegetables from this recipe.

It's best served hot, but is still delicious if left to cool and served cold.

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as an appetizer / part of a buffet or picnic

Preparation time:15  minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes


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Ingredients for Pesto, Olive, Feta and Vegetable Tart Recipe

  • 375g (or 1 sheet) Puff Pastry - Ready rolled if possible to save time
  • 5 Tablespoons Green Basil Pesto (shop bought or home made is fine)
  • 1 Jar Antipasti Chargrilled Peppers - approx. 285g (usually sold in an oil based marinade)
  • 60g (or 1/2 cup) Black Olives (drained if preserved in saline or oil)
  • 10-12 Cherry Tomatoes
  • 200g (or just less than 1 cup) Feta Cheese
  • 200g can of Artichoke Hearts (100g weight once drained)

Equipment Needed:

  • Baking Tray measuring approx. 26cm by 37cm (preferably non stick)
  • Chopping Board and Sharp Knife
  • Table Knife
  • Rolling Pin (if your puff pastry does not come ready rolled)
  • Greaseproof Paper / Baking Parchment (if your baking tray is not non-stick)
  • Kitchen Towel / Kitchen Roll

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 190 o C / 375 o F / Gas Mark 5
  2. If your baking tray is not non-stick, line it with greaseproof paper or baking parchment.
  3. Roll out the puff pastry to the size of your baking tray and place it onto the tray
  4. Using a table knife, score a border around the edge of the pastry, approx. 2cm inside the edge of the pastry, so that it resembles a picture frame when finished. Take care not to cut right through the pastry onto the tray itself. This will allow the pastry to rise on the outside of the tart.
  5. Spread the pesto evenly onto the pastry base, keeping within the border that you have just created on the pastry.
  6. Drain the antipasti peppers and place them on a piece of kitchen towel/roll to absorb any remaining oil. Pat dry and then spread over the pastry. Try to make sure that no pieces of peppers are overlapping. At this stage there will still be gaps of pastry showing through the peppers.
  7. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the tart. Try to place them where there are gaps in the pepper coverage.
  8. Drain the artichoke hearts and place them on some kitchen towel as they will still be quite wet. Once the majority of the moisture has disappeared, cut each artichoke heart into half (or even quarters if they are large) and lay them on the tart so that there are a few pieces in each section of the tart.
  9. Dot the olives around the tart
  10. Finally, cut the feta cheese into bite sized chunks, approx. 1.5 - 2 cm squares. Place these evenly on the tart, so that when standing back and looking at the tray, each part of the tart has a fair share of the cheese, along with the various vegetables
  11. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the pastry has risen and is a golden colour and the feta cheese is just starting to brown on the edges. Serve with a crisp green salad - Rocket leaves go well with this as the sharpness of the leaf compliments the richness of the tart.