Sunday, December 19, 2010

Mushroom Tart


This post is kinda misleading because I did not cook a single meal this week. Yup. It's true. Zero. Cooking. We ate out 3 out of the 5 days, ordered in another day, and the rest of the time we ate leftovers. The tart you see here was actually last weekend -- I just forgot to post it. Oops.


The thing about phyllo dough is that it's the best thing ever. Seriously. It's pre-made, keeps for a long time, can be used in a billion different delicious ways, and is perfectly buttery and flaky in a way that few home-made doughs are. Every time I read one of my favorite blogs and I see a tart with a perfect crust, I scroll down to the ingredients and immediately feel gratified when I see that they used phyllo dough. It makes me feel so much better about my own struggle with making dough from scratch.


I originally made this tart in preparation for lunch with a college buddy that was in town for residency interviews. BUT, she is a jerk and decided to stay home and eat her mom's homemade Chinese food for lunch instead. How rude! Kidding, kidding.

In the end, the tart was devoured by me, Dan and Emily. The crust was flaky and buttery, the cheese was gooey and savory, and the mushrooms were fragrant and delicious. So good fresh out of the oven, and surprisingly still tasty the next day...even if the crust was a tad soggy.

Recipe** courtesy of the Kitchen Wench.

**Just a couple comments about the recipe:
(1) If you don't have goat cheese, just use 4 oz of cream cheese instead. It was still tangy and delicious.
(2) I made two tarts, and forgot to add egg to the topping mixture for one of them. I actually liked that one a lot better -- it was a lot more creamy/melty.
(3) I cut up big chunks of fresh mozzarella and layered it over the top of the tart, then sprinkled some sea salt on top for extra flavor. If you like pizza that has ropes of cheese pull away with every bite, you'll definitely want to do this.

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