You little tart, you.

What do you get when you combine pastry, cheese, and the good earth's snobbiest vegetable? Why, an asparagus tart, of course! My variation on the original recipe I found is that I also added fresh mushrooms, and used a bag of pre-shredded cheese. Hey, I'm not going out for a brick of gruyere when this might not even work out. Next time, however, now that I know this recipe is FABULOUS. And painfully easy.

Ingredients:

~ Asparagus! Enough to cover your pastry
~ 3 medium white mushrooms, sliced
~ 1 sheet of puff pastry *buy frozen, and thaw it the day you're gonna use it.
~ olive oil
~ a handful of shredded cheese
~ Salt and Pepper, if desired

I know you are loving how accurate my measurements are, yet again. Oops.

Preheat your oven to 400.

Now! Let's get rolling! Literally. Step one: Flatten the pastry.

Spread some baking flour on your work surface then roll your dough into a rectangle, about 10" x 16" and place on your foil-lined baking sheet. Martha wants you to "trim the edges". WTF? It's pastry. You trim NOTHING! No waste here! Just smoosh it into shape if it's not pretty enough for your pan.

Then with the tip of a sharp knife, score (this means make an almost-cut) through the dough, 1" from the edges to mark a rectangle.

DON'T cut right through! Careful. Slow and steady wins...uh...the biggest piece when it's done. Yeah.

Then take a a fork and pierce the interior of your rectangle, about 1/2" apart. Bake until golden, about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it! Some are faster or slower and you don't want to crisp it up before you've even gotten to the toppings.

Remove pastry shell from oven, and sprinkle with some of the cheese, then layer your asparagus in an alternating head-to-toe style along the length of the tart. Throw down your mushrooms and some more cheese, brush your pastry with a bit of oil, and season with salt and pepper if so inclined.

Bake about 10 more minutes. Cut into squares with a very sharp knife (as the pastry is uber-flaky and will crumble everywhere if you don't), and eat it pizza-style.

Easy, right? Right.

SIDENOTE: Fancypants Martha used fresh asparagus, so adjust your cooking times accordingly. And if you do go fresh, definitely plan to use all of it up within 2 days. Finicky, grouchy veg. It doesn't wait around for nobody.

Get cooking,

Stace.