Easy Cheesy Salami Tomato Tart #FridayPieDay

Easy to throw together, this tart starts with puff pastry, topped with pesto, salami, fresh tomatoes and semi-soft cheese, for a savory slice of deliciousness that’s perfect for lunch or dinner. Or enjoy it cold the next day for breakfast. I did!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It is my pleasure to join my friend, Heather, today for another edition of Friday Pie Day. Make sure to scroll on down to the bottom for the link to her take on classic mince pies.

One of the standard items in my freezer is pre-rolled puff pastry. It thaws fairly quickly and I find it can be ready to unroll by the time my oven preheats, which makes tart making a breeze. The filling is easily adapted to whatever you have on hand - as long as you make sure to include some melty cheese! - so it’s perfect for busy days when you want a special meal but are short on time. Like during the holidays.

This tart is adapted from a recipe at cuisineAZ.

Ingredients
8 oz or 225g all butter puff pastry dough
3 1/2 oz or 100g salami
3 medium tomatoes (Mine weighed about 9 oz or 260g.)
8 3/4 oz or 250g semi-soft cheese (I used Morbier.)
3 tablespoons fresh pesto (Mine was made with wild rocket or arugula.)
Freshly ground black pepper

Optional garnish: chopped green onions

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and line your tart pan with baking parchment.

Unroll your puff pastry dough circle (or roll it out with a rolling pin if it’s in a block) and fit it into your tart pan.

Dock the dough with a fork and bake in your preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and then turn the temperature down to 350°F or 180°C.

Spread the base of the tart with the pesto.

Top with salami.

Slice your tomatoes very thinly. Cut the hard rinds off of your cheese and slice it as thinly as possible, which frankly is a little tricky with a semi-soft cheese. Do your best.

Top the salami with the tomato slices.

Then top the tomatoes with the cheese slices and give the whole tart a good few grinds of black pepper.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is all melted and golden.

Sprinkle with chopped green onions, if desired.

Allow to cool slightly before cutting and serving. You can also serve it at room temperature.

Enjoy!

This easy cheesy salami tomato tart is my contribution to this month's Friday Pie Day, the brilliant creation of Heather from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen. (Formerly girlichef.)

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

This month Heather has baked mini cranberry mince pies, an essential for Christmas!

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!


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Mini Party Crab Cakes

Heavy on the crabmeat with a few toasted fresh bread crumbs and an egg to hold them together, these mini party crab cakes are seasoned lightly with just green onion, salt and pepper, so the crab shines through.

Way back in the Sixties, my husband’s grandparents made a decision that blesses us to this day. They sold up their home in England and retired to the island of Jersey in the English Channel. They bought a house that is square and solid and will probably outlast us all. It’s not fancy but it is comfortable and we like to head here every chance we get. 

Yes, even as you read this, we are preparing to celebrate Christmas in Jersey and the refrigerator is full of special treats, like Jersey cream, butter and milk from genuine Jersey cows! Man, I love this place! I mean, just look at it! This view is a two-minute walk from our front door. And down below, it's a gorgeous white sand beach.

Since Jersey is an island, fresh seafood is plentiful. One of our favorite lunches is simplicity itself. There’s salad and bread, sure, and there must be chilled white or rosé wine, but the focus of the meal is large brown crabs or as they are known on the island, chancre crabs. Everybody gets one to hammer and pick at. These are large guys and they have a lot of meat in them!

Their meat is also perfect for making crab cakes. I must confess that I am a crab cake purist. A little toasted breadcrumbs, some green onions, salt and pepper, plus an egg for binding. That’s it. No dipping them in stuff and adding more breadcrumbs to the outside. No frying in a lot of oil. And definitely, definitely, no Old Bay spices! 

I know those are traditional in a lot of places but I want to taste the CRAB, not mustard, paprika, celery salt, bay leaf, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, mace, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, and ginger. What a mouthful. Go ahead, leave me a comment about how fabulous Old Bay is and I’ll surely thank you for stopping by, and I hope we can still be friends, but I say bring on the crabby tasting crab cakes!

These little guys are perfect for serving as an appetizer, straight, just as they are. Or pop them on to some pretty greens tossed with a light vinaigrette for a salad starter, perfect for any dinner party. They can be pan-fried ahead of time and rewarmed in the oven, or just formed into cakes and chilled, then cooked as guests arrive and passed 'round hot.

Mini Party Crab Cakes

Nowadays pasteurized fresh crabmeat can be found in the refrigerator section of most supermarkets and will last for ages unopened. Since the other ingredients are staples in almost any kitchen, last minute guests can pop by and you can have these babies ready to serve in very little time.

Ingredients for about 20 crab cakes
1.1 lbs or 500g crab meat
1-2 slices fresh brown bread
Large bunch green onions
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg
Drizzle olive oil – for the pan

Method
Toast your bread in a warm oven to dry it out, then use a food processor to make it into bread crumbs. Ideally, you’d like to end with about 2/3 cup or 60g of crumbs. Bread slices vary in size so use your judgment about how many to toast.

Pick through the crabmeat carefully to remove any bits of shell that might have been missed.

Chop your green onions – just the green bits – into small pieces.

Combine all of the ingredients – except the oil - in a bowl and mix well.

Cover a large plate with cling film. This will make it easier to remove your crab cakes because you can lift the cling film to tip the cakes up so you can get under them, if necessary.

Dampen your hands with water so the mixture doesn’t stick to them. Scoop a couple of tablespoons of the crab into your wet hands and mold your crab cakes, setting them on the cling film covered plate. Keep your hands damp or the crab will start to stick!

At this point, you can chill them, covered with more cling film to cook later.

Or warm a non-stick pan over a medium heat and drizzle in a little olive oil.

Fry the crab cakes a few at a time for just a few minutes on each side, until they are golden on both sides.

Get two pans going if you need them done quicker and you can multitask!

If you aren’t passing them right over to your waiting guests, remove the cakes to a foil-lined baking pan and keep them warm in a very slow oven. They can also be chilled at this point and rewarmed later in a medium oven.

Twenty little crab cakes all in a row. 

Enjoy!

Pin these Mini Party Crab Cakes!

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Hot Buttered Rum Bundt #BundtBakers

Lots of butter and rum in a small Bundt cake, topped with hot buttered rum glaze – it’s perfect for a cozy dinner party this holiday season.

This month’s Bundt Bakers theme is Naughty or Nice! Although I am sure you will agree after taking a look at our link list of recipe titles, even the naughty ones look pretty nice.

The challenge set by our lovely host, Olivia from Liv for Cake, was as follows

Sometimes it’s nice to be naughty! Choose one of these directions for your Bundt this month. For "Naughty” think boozy or things like Devil’s Food Cake. "Nice” Bundts can be of the more traditional, innocent kind — Gingerbread, Peppermint, etc. Naughty or Nice, all Bundts should share the flavors of a WINTER HOLIDAY.

I guess we all know which way I went on the Naughty to Nice scale. Don't you love that sign hanging from my rum bottle? I bought it from a crafty friend at the American Association of Malaysia Christmas Bazaar last month.

Ingredients for a six-inch Bundt cake (I used the Nordic Ware Anniversary pan. <affiliate link)
For the cake batter:
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup or 60ml gold rum, topped up with milk to equal 1/3 cup or 78ml
3/4 cup or 105g chopped pecans

For the Hot Buttered Rum glaze:
1/4 cup, packed, or 50g brown sugar
1/4 cup or 60g butter
1/3 cup or 80ml whipping (heavy) cream
1/4 cup or 60ml gold rum
Good pinch of sea salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Grease and flour your 6-in Bundt pan or spray it with non-stick baking spray with flour. I often use the baking spray but since more butter in a butter cake is always better, I did it the old fashion way this time.

Sift your flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add in the rest of the ingredients – except the nuts - and beat for a minute until combined. Scrape down the bowl and beat at high speed for 4 minutes.

Do NOT taste the batter or there won't be any left to bake. You have been warned! 

Fold in the pecans.

Spoon into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake 30-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack, then turn the Bundt out to finish cooling on the rack.

For the hot buttered rum glaze:
Mix all ingredients in 1 1/2-quart saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Boil 3 to 4 minutes, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened. Allow to cool until it thickens even more, whisking occasionally to check consistency. You don’t want it to drip completely off the cake.

Spoon over cooled cake.

Enjoy!

Have you been naughty or nice this year? Never mind - My Bundt Bakers still have cake for you!

• Amaretto Almond Bundt Cake by I Bake He Shoots
• Angel Food Bundt Cake with Cranberry Filling and Lemon Glaze by Taking On Magazines
• Anise Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Bundtcake Especiado by La mejor manera de hacer...
• Candy Cane Bundt by Cali's Cuisine
• Cherry Chocolate Bundt Cake by Basic N Delicious
• Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake by How to Philosophize with Cake
• Christmas Fruitcake by Tea and Scones
• Christmas Rose Bundt Cake by Living the Gourmet
• Cranberry Spice Bundt Cake by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Eggnog Pound Cake by Palatable Pastime
• Chocolate Gingerbread Bundts with Cream Cheese Frosting by I Camp In My Kitchen
• Hot Buttered Rum Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Maple Pecan Cake by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Naughty and Nice Kahlua Gingerbread Bundt Cake by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Old Fashioned Marble Cake Bundt by Brooklyn Homemaker
• Peppermint Candy Cane Bundt Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Rum & Eggnog Bundt Cake by Liv for Cake
• Spiced Fruitcake by Magnolia Days
• Spiced Ginger Bundt Cake with Caramel Brandy Sauce by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Spiced Rum Eggnog Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice Cake by Eat, Drink, Be Mighty
• Super Naughty Chocolate Whiskey Bacon Jam Bundt Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite A Whiskered Accomplice

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

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