Asparagus Tart

A week after the dinner took place as I am writing this, I honestly don't remember why I was inspired to make the Asparagus and Gruyere Tart that I am describing in this post. I faintly remember seeing a photo of a pretty vegetable tart last Saturday morning as I was engaging in my customary pre-long-run coffee-drinking website surfing hour (tip: it helps to pass the time while outside running for an hour or more to think about and recreate the recipe and ingredient lists in your mind of all the yummy things you are planning to cook over the weekend in your spare time). And I barely remember thinking that yes, asparagus is in season and that we haven't taken advantage of it much this spring, so why not try to bake this delicous tart?

http://www.closetcooking.com/2009/05/asparagus-and-gruyere-tart.html

So last Saturday night Scott grilled some delicious steaks. He prepared ribeyes that we had purchased (and subsequently frozen and thawed later) at the farmer's market the week before. Therefore, the meat was the tender, grass-fed, organic, locally-raised in Texas variety of meat. I can easily enjoy a few ounces of this type of steak, especially when it is expertly grilled by Scott. I made a side dish of sauteed spinach and cremini mushrooms, seasoned with fresh onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a sprinking of parmesan. And I also made the tart. A word of warning: my tart is small because I wasn't sure how much Paleo boy would eat and I wasn't sure how leftovers would fare with this being a baked pastry tart. Plus, those puff pastry sheets you can purchase frozen from the grocery store are rather large!

First the before picture. Can you see the flecks of Gruyere mounted on top of the fresh asparagus? Delicious!

The "after" picture is rather unglamorous because I forgot to take a post-picture until we were about to dig in to the meal. I raced to get my camera as Scott and I were about to take bites of our already cut asparagus tarts, not at all doing this tart the justice it deserved.

Needless to say, this dish was very good, nice and light, and a nice complement to the heavier steak and spinach dishes. My only remoreseful thought about this dish is that I didn't think the cheese contributed a sufficiently strong flavor. When I take a sliver off the block of Gruyere it is flavorful and robust. On this tart, not so much. I have prepared one other savory tart in my lifetime using puff pastry, which involved roasted tomatoes and goat cheese, and with that one I remember that the cheese flavor was much stronger, almost dominating the pastry. With this dish, as I prepared it (remember that I modified the recipe to serve two, one of whom is Paleo-friendly) the cheese was second-fiddle to the asparagus and pastry.

Still super-yummy, and a dish that I would recreate again. I must remember to make more savory dishes like this in the future.