It’s all about that base, right?! A ready-made ‘base’ – such as pizza dough, puff pastry or flammkuchen – can be a life saver in your kitchen. It’s all you need to create dinner in an instant.
The perfect formula
I always have ‘a base’ in the fridge. And I mostly use this basic formula to top them:
base + sauce + vegetables + cheese + toppings = dinner
Sauce
The sauce stuff can be anything from pesto, to ricotta with lemon, to creme fraiche with garlic. Just something that covers the bottom well and that you can spread out easily.
Vegetables
The vegetables go on top of that. It’s nice to add more than one variety and it can basically be anything that lingers in the fridge. Courgette with fennel, aubergine with tomato, butternut squash with kale, sweet potato with spinach, potato with mushrooms, … If you don’t want to pre-roast or pre-boil the vegetables that require a longer cokking time; just slice them very thin That usually works well.
Cheese
We always put some cheese on top, just because!😊 Like ricotta, goats cheese or feta cheese. Or you could grate some parmesan or cheddar cheese into the creamy stuff.
Topping
As a topping we often use either something salty for an accent. Think chopped olives, nuts, or sundried tomatoes. Or we top with fresh herbs like basil or dill.
Aubergine, red pesto, cherry tomato, ricotta tart
I hope you enjoy this aubergine, red pesto, cherry tomato, ricotta version! Or that you will start experimenting to your own taste!
Ingredients (for 2 or 3)
- 1 roll ready-made base (pizza, puff pastry, flammkuchen)
- 1 large aubergine
- olive oil, salt and pepper
- 100 gr ricotta cheese
- 1 lemon, zested
- 2 handfuls fresh basil
- 1 clove of garlic
- 200 gr red pesto
- 250 gr cherry tomatoes
- salt, pepper and olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to the required temperature for your base.
Cut the eggplant into 1 cm slices. Brush them with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Put them onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
While the aubergine is in the oven, mix the ricotta in a bowl with the lemon zest, half the basil and grate the garlic clove into it. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
Roll out the dough on a baking sheet and spread the red pesto on top. Top with the roasted aubergine slices. Put the cherry tomatoes between the slices with the cut-side up. Bake the tart in the oven for about 20 minutes (or however long your base requires).
Take the tart out of the oven and top with dollops of the ricotta mixture and the rest of the basil. Sprinkle over some olive oil when serving.
