With Superbowl Sunday coming up I thought I'd toss out a recipe for an appetizer to make! This, believe it or not, is the first time I ever wrote down a recipe and made it completely from scratch.. April of 2012!
The following text is copied exactly as it was written back then... For some reason all of the images aren't on my computer, so if you'd like to see them (in their blurred out glory) here is the original post. Okay, I did make a couple adjustments to the recipe, but-
Well, here it is. The recipe that I came up with from scratch. All on my own. I actually measured everything out too. And it tastes like heaven. The crispy, flaky pastry puff is so nice, then it’s filled with the zesty tomatoes and pepperonis and olives, and you bite down into a savory cheese blend. The delicious burst of fresh tomato and lemon as you chew is just so good. Mmmmm. MMMMM. I kept two out over night to see if they’d have that ‘next day pizza’ taste, but they were gone by morning. BF ate them. Must have been great. They remind ME of gourmet pizza rolls.
Ingredients: 2 sheets of pastry puff (24 squares) Cheese Base: ¾ cup ricotta 1 1/3 cup mozarella ¼ cup parmesan ½ tablespoon minced garlic ¾ tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon chopped onion ½ tablespoon basil 1 tablespoon oregano 1 red pepper flakes 1 pinch sea salt 1 pinch pepper Pizza Topping “Salsa”: 3/4 cup chopped tomato ½ cup chopped black olives ½ cup chopped pepperoni minis ¼ teaspoon oregano ¼ teaspoon basil ¼ teaspoon black pepper ¼ teaspoon sea salt 1 teaspoon lemon juice egg wash (1 egg, 1 tablespoon water, beaten) butter to grease pan flour to sprinkle on counter
Tools needed: 1 mini cupcake pan, 2 bowls, 1 pastry brush, 1 chef knife
While you’re getting all of your ingredients together, put the pastry puff sheet out on the counter. I put mine on a piece of wax paper just in case. Preheat the oven at 400F!
Started by adding in the ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan into your food processor. Pulse a couple times and then add in the spices, garlic, and lemon juice. Pulse until smooth.
Next, the “salsa”. Which is just what I’m calling it, but it’s just diced up “toppings” you’d normally have on a pizza. Tomatoes (instead of sauce), pepperoni, black olives and the same spices you put in the cheese base.
Dice up the tomatoes, olives, pepperoni, add the spices, and put in some lemon juice that gives it a zesty flavor and brings it all together.
Now, prepare the pastry puff. Dust the counter with flour so that it doesn’t stick. Peel open the sheet now that it’s thawed. Very carefully cut the sheet into twelve squares. Try to get them equal… mine were not so equal but they still worked.
Prepare an egg wash by cracking an egg, beating it with a fork and adding some water to water it down just a little. Brush the egg wash onto the side-up of the pastry puff.
Very carefully move each square over to a greased mini muffin pan.
Press the square very gently into the muffin slot and take a spoonful of cheese base and press it into the bottom of the square. On top of that, add a generous spoonful of 'salsa’ to the cup. Top with a sprinkle of Parmesan and brush the top, exposed edges with more of the egg wash. This goes for each one!
Try to fill all of the cups as fast as possible because the pastry puff starts to get too sticky and “melt”, becoming hard to work with.
Put the filled up pan into the oven at 400F for 15 minutes and golden brown. Take them out of the pan and let them cool on a baking rack.
Make sure to eat while hot because the cheese oozes and is so delicious. There’s a slight crisp of the cooked Parmesan on top and the cooked tomatoes are just sooooo fresh!
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