Italian Sausage and Sun Dried Tomato Tartlets

My sister-in-law always has the best hors d'oeuvres at her Christmas parties and there are hardly ever any leftovers.  I used this recipe that she had for a party that we had and we didn't have any leftovers.

Italian Sausage and Sun Dried Tomato Tartlets

Yield: 12 tartlets

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet of frozen puffed pastry, thawed (I used Pepperidge Farm with good results)
• 1 large or 2 small Italian Sweet Sausage  (I bought bulk sausage at the market district instead)
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup of grated parmesan or to taste, plus extra for topping
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, softened and minced
• 12 pieces of jack or mozzarella cheese cut to fit the tops of the tartlets
  

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Cut the pastry into 2 1/2 inch circles using wineglass or biscuit cutter.  Press each circle into mini muffin tin.
3.  Prick the sausages with a fork, wrap in a paper towel, place on a plate and microwave for 2 minutes on high.  Or heat in a 350F oven for 20 minutes.  Slice the sausage in 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. (If you do it this way you still have the casing on each slice.  I didn't like that, so that's why I crumbled bulk sausage onto each tartlet instead.)
4.Combine the ricotta cheese with the parmesan and tomatoes.  Place some in each pastry cup, top with a little more parmesan, sausage and top with the jack cheese.
5. Bake until hot and the cheese is melted, about 8 minutes.

Can assemble up to 1 day in advance and refrigerate.  (They don't freeze well - they get soggy.)

Other Notes:
To make 48 only need to triple ( not 4X) the filling.  48 takes 2 boxes of puff pastry and an 8 ounce log of monteray jack cheese and 1 lb bulk sausage.