Savory fennel and duck sausage tart

We came up with a new savory puff pastry tart tonight. These recipes come right out of our collective heads.

When Leslie and I put our culinary minds together and are working on the same page the results are often quite delicious!

Tonight we made a fennel and duck sausage tart with arugula, garlic and crushed red pepper, nesting in a fontina, ricotta puff pastry base and topped with shaved parmesan.

Overkill? Maybe. 

Was it worth it? Yes. Learning a few tricks with this stuff, through the blind process of discovery and just doing it. The possibilities are endless. We tried a slightly different twist for round two.

Leslie cooked mushrooms, spinach and bacon in white wine with garlic.  I prepared the puff pastry and coated it with just ricotta this time. I added sun dried tomatoes to my side. Topped it with shaved parmesan again.The flavors melded extraordinarily.

Of course, we would have to have dessert after such a fine repast.

Renee gave us a basket of her ripe olallieberries this afternoon. I made a sweetened ricotta base and then we added the berries, brown sugar, lemon zest and cardamon. About 17 minutes at 400 degrees f. Pretty freaking amazing.

One thing I have learned is that if your prepping is taking too long, get the pastry back in the freezer for a few minutes. Cold is very important with this stuff.