Simple tomato and mozzarella tarts

All you will need is puff pastry, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, dried italian herbs, and a beaten egg.

You can use ready-made puff pastry, I use Jus-Rol pastry. Simply roll it out and cut into circles, or any shape, with a cookie cutter or something similar. 

Brush the outsides of the circle with beaten egg, and place a slice of mozzarella in the middle, topped with a slice of tomato. Sprinkle with herbs and bake in the oven for around 10-15 mins on about gas mark 4 or 5 (180-200 degrees)

I made these to take to a buffet once, they were easy to re-heat in the oven and tasted delicious.

Enjoy :)

Goats cheese and caramelised onion tart (Valentine's Day starter)

Goats cheese and caramelised onion tart

(As seen on Masterchef Celebrity 2010 - Lisa Faulkner won with this as part of her 3 course meal)

Recipe I used is from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/goats_cheese_and_onion_51943

I previously used ready made puff pastry to make this starter, but making shortcrust pastry makes this more rewarding and rich in taste and texture :) I would definitely recommend this for any special occasion!

Pastry preparation and cooking - make sure you have some baking beans or something similar as this pastry is cooked blind before the filling goes in!

I love making the caramelised onion filling (onion, sugar, butter, balsamic), it smells divine when it's cooking, and tastes even better! I made the goats cheese filling (goats cheese, egg yolk, cream) with spreadable goats cheese instead of crumbly, although I think crumbly would have worked better for texture...

I garnished with spinach leaves, a dash of balsamic, and dried thyme!