Showing posts with label Hors d'oeuvres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hors d'oeuvres. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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. 

Pinwheels

I picked up this easy hors d'oeuvre recipe at this weekend's class.   There are a couple of variations for this.  I'm going to write the directions for the ones that we had in class and then include the variations at the end.

Pinwheels

Ingredients:
  • Soft tortillas
  • Thin sliced roast beef
  • mayonnaise
  • Wich'craft Balsamic Onion Marmalade (Williams-Sonoma product)

Place the tortillas on a baking sheet.  Place a thin layer of roast beef on the tortilla.  Warm the tortillas.  Once they are warm, add a very thin layer of mayonnaise and a thin layer of the balsamic onion marmalade.  Roll the tortilla and then cut the tortilla into thin slices.  Serve these on a nice serving platter or plate.

Variations:
  • Roast Beef and Cheddar cheese
  • Turkey and Swiss cheese
  • Ham and Swiss

Tips:
  • If you make pinwheels and are going to serve them warm, make sure that you serve them on a warming plate so that the cheese does not get rubbery.
  • Spicy mustard can be substituted for the mayonnaise or the cheese in any of the variations listed here.