three tomato pesto tart

I love italian flavours! This tart looks pretty impressive in a rustic sort of way, but takes hardly any time at all. 

This recipe contains homemade pesto. After trying a few vegan shop-bought pestos, I wasn't that impressed. When I realised how easy it was to make your own, I've never looked back! You will need a mini food processor. I have one of the stick blender thingies, which comes with a little pot attachment - Ideal for pestos as it's small, but nice and whizzy!

Did you know that the Jus-Rol range of frozen pastries are vegan? So are their frozen croissant pastry packs, which I must say I am VERY excited to try. I do miss croissants, so now I can be extra smug and eat them, but also say they're homemade, har har!

Serves 4 with a side salad, or 2 without. 

For the pesto:

Half a jar of sundried tomatoes
A handful of basil leaves (I keep a plant on my windowsill, bought from Sainsburys)
3 or 4 walnut halves (or cashews, or pine nuts, but they are more expensive)
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Nutritional yeast (it's a specifically vegan ingredient - little yeasty flakes that taste cheesy and nutty, and give lots of recipes a nice tang)
Pepper

For the rest of the tart:

1 sheet of Jus-Rol puff pastry
Half a punnet of cherry tomatoes
2 bigger salad tomatoes (on the vine if you want to be posh)
Handful of Basil leaves

1. Defrost your pastry. Apparently you're supposed to wait an hour for it to defrost. If you're careful, you can do this in the microwave in 10 second bursts - unfurl the pastry little by little as you go. As far as I can tell, it doesn't damage the rise of the pastry as long as you're careful. 

2. Mark an edge about 1.5cm across around the pastry. Don't cut all the way through, just leave a shallow incision. This will give the tart a nice puffy edge, as you can see in the picture.  Place the pastry on a baking tray, and turn the oven on to 200 degrees C ready.

3. It's pesto time! Chuck all of your ingredients into your food processor. If you have a stick blender without a little pot attachment, you could just about do this in a deep bowl, but take any white clothes off just in case. Add more olive oil a little at a time until your paste doesn't look dry. It should be spreadable!

3. Hopefully your pesto is gloopy enough because now you have to spread it across the base. Leave the edges free so they can puff up in peace. 

4. Chop generous slices of the bigger salad tomatoes, and lay them artfully onto the pastry. Then chop the cherry tomatoes and add them to the gaps, until your pastry base is nice and full.

5. Before you pop it into the oven, sprinkle a little bit of pepper on the tomatoes. It should be looking pretty good by now!

6. Bake per the Jus-Rol instructions - I checked mine after 15 minutes and it was done.

7. Sprinkle on the basil leaves. If you put them on before it goes in the oven, they crisp up and die, so best to chuck them on fresh.

8. Serve! Either with a side salad or if you're really lazy, on its own! 

I remember seeing a veggie version of this tart years ago where they' cut the pastry into a heart shape for valentines day. I think that could look pretty impressive! Or you could do lots of mini ones for a posh buffet. It's such an easy meal to make, it's inspired me to try out all sorts of different toppings too. 

What would your ideal topping be?