Cherry Tomato, Asparagus, and Herbed Ricotta Tart

This cherry tomato, asparagus, and herbed ricotta tart recipe was as delicious as it was gorgeous! The puff pastry crust was delicious and framed the herbed ricotta beautifully. My asparagus was very thin so it took a lot of stalks to weigh 7 ounces. There were too many stalks to have it look like the photograph so I decided to make a sort of flower garden pattern. The asparagus was roasted to perfection. I will definitely be making this again when asparagus is in season! 10 out of 10 stars!

What a delightful tart! It’s very light and refreshing, and the acidity of the tomatoes is an awesome counterpoint to the slight sweetness of the ricotta. This would be a fantastic appetizer or canape, but also a great main dish in warmer weather.

The recipe worked very well and though I am the queen of tweaking recipes I actually followed the directions here for the most part and it came out beautifully–and more importantly–deliciously! Unfortunately, my local grocery had no asparagus so I just made the tart with mixed cherry tomatoes and it was lovely, though I can see how the asparagus would be fantastic with the lemon zest.

You definitely want vegetables that will play well with lemon and cook enough in the minimal time this tart spends in the oven. The ricotta base would work for winter vegetables as well with some flavor tweaking, maybe sage and thyme with very thinly sliced butternut squash pieces, or pre-cooked sliced root vegetables or squash. It’s a great canvas for many flavors!

This cherry tomato, asparagus, and herbed ricotta tart recipe is great for a light lunch paired with a salad or as an appetizer. The tart was easy to make, especially when using frozen puff pastry. Don’t skimp on the herbs–use all of the chives, parsley, basil, and lemon. The combination was so flavorful with no one herb overpowering the rest. I added a little tomato pesto to the tart when serving–it helped to bring out the flavors of the tart!

I am in agreement with the author of this recipe about puff pastry.  It’s a great item to have in the freezer as it makes an impressive main or appetizer in no time. The cherry tomato, asparagus, and herbed ricotta tart came together really quickly and the end result is gorgeous!  The ricotta, herbs, and lemon are a delicious base for the vegetables. I wondered if the raw vegetables would cook enough and they came out beautifully cooked. 

My asparagus were quite large so I halved them lengthwise. A small diameter asparagus will be just fine to leave whole.  I also only used about half of the tomatoes and that is really personal preference on how many you want on your tart.

The standard box of puff pastry at my local store is a 17.3-ounce box with 2 sheets in the box. I used 1 sheet and rolled it out to 12- by 10-inches and it worked perfectly. At my house, it was a unanimous “make this one again!”

This recipe makes a very delicious tart, and with herbed ricotta as the base, the possibility for variations on the herbs and vegetables are only limited by your imagination (and your garden/pantry ingredients, of course!)

Be sure to check the ingredients and use only puff pastry that is actually made with butter. Several brands that are available in grocery stores are made with vegetable oils (e.g. palm, soybean, hydrogenated cottonseed.) Definitely not the best for you nor would you get the super-buttery flavor you’d expect from a properly-made pâte feuilletée (although they do a pretty good job of mimicking the real thing.) Therefore, I agree with the author that there’s no need to be snobbish about using the ready-made product, if it has the correct ingredients.

Watch the baking time carefully. Puff pastry is a bit tricky, as I learned in culinary school when I took a beautifully browned pastry out of the oven, declaring it done, and Chef Christopher told me to look at it more carefully and I would see that inside it was still raw. My full-size tart took 28 minutes to be completely done.

This is a delicate and delicious savory tart that looks like it came straight out of a French Patisserie — even mine turned out gorgeous with very little effort required! The tart was assembled in under 30 minutes and with a quick bake of 20 minutes, you’ve got a fabulous starter or light main course in under an hour.

The ricotta has a very mild flavor so if you want to punch it up a bit, you could add another stronger cheese or pesto but I loved it as written. My puff pastry was about 9 oz. rather than 11 but I don’t think that was a problem. I was definitely not able to use all the asparagus or all the tomatoes (in fact I used exactly half of the asparagus). We ate this as a main course along with a substantial salad.

The flavors here were pretty wonderful and I can easily imagine substituting other vegetables, perhaps roasted eggplant, mushrooms, and caramelized red onion. In other words, the concept allows for a whole host of other options, including the suggested pesto. The little burst of lemon and assorted herbs and garlic in the ricotta topping were a lovely complement to the asparagus and tomatoes.