Poor vegetarians. Thanksgiving must be their dreariest holiday. Filling up on sweet potatoes, conversation, and not much else as many families find themselves at a loss of what to offer their meat-eschewing brethren that doesn’t involve some sort of strange tofu wizardry. If you have vegetarians coming around for Thanksgiving you want a recipe like this in your arsenal. It’s easy, delicious, and perfectly in season for fall. Mushrooms provide that hearty-meaty-umami touch to a meal that will satisfy any meat eaters at your table as well. These mushroom tarts look complicated but thanks to store bought frozen puff pastry they are quick and easy to pull together. Even more so if you do the first step of baking the pastry shells in advance, though that’s not necessary if you are making them for a weeknight supper. We at these with a dark, leafy green salad and the last of summer’s garden fresh tomatoes.
I adapted this recipe from Mushroom and Pecorino Tarts in the Everyday Food’s Fresh Flavor Fast cookbook.
Ingredients:
- 1 sheet of thawed frozen puff pastry, which works out to half a 17.3 oz package
- 1 1/4 pounds mushrooms, I used a combination of button and fancy mixed mushrooms
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tbs butter or olive oil
- 3 scallions, finely sliced, with the white parts separated from the dark green parts
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 tbs white wine, optional
- all-purpose flour, for dusting
- salt and pepper
Method:
– Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Scatter flour on a clean surface and roll out your puff pastry until it’s an 11 inch square. Divide the pastry into four equal squares with a knife, and then score each tart by drawing a 1-inch boarder and pricking the interior in several places with a fork. (I really should have photographed that step because I didn’t realize how hard it would be to describe it. This recipe from Sunday Sweets shows what that would look like on a large scale, so just imagine that process done to each of the four squares.)
– Place the squares on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake until golden for about 15 minutes. This is the step you can do in advance if you have a whole Thanksgiving meal to put together. If not, carry on, soldier!
– Heat the oil or butter in skillet over medium-high. Add the mushrooms and saute for about 6 minutes. Add the white parts of the scallion and the minced garlic and cook for another four minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the wine. Cook a few more minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
– Sprinkle the cheese evenly between the four pastry shells, reserving some for sprinkling on top, and add the mushroom-onion mixture. Add the remaining cheese and bake for about 5 to 8 minutes until pastry is golden and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with the scallion greens and serve.
