Leek and Roquefort cheese tarts

Sometimes you look at a recipe and know that it really has no choice but to be tasty. With these ingredients, it's preordained.

 

Leek and Roquefort cheese tartlets

Adapted from “Wine Bites,” by Barbara Scott-Goodman. The premise of this book is pairing fairly simple fare with wine. So, in other words a book I was destined to own. She recommended a Cab or Zin, but I had a Loveblock Sauv Blanc open and that was just dandy.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter

3 large leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and finely chopped

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves plus sprigs for garnish

Salt and pepper

1¼ cup crumbled Roquefort

½ cup crème fraiche

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment.

Melt butter over medium heat in a skillet. Add leeks and cook until softened but not brown. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.

Stir in thyme leaves, cheese and crème fraiche and combine well.

Roll out each pastry sheet to a 10-inch square. Divide into 4 squares for first-course size servings (if you want appetizer party-size servings, cut each square in half again, which is clearly how this recipe was staged in the cookbook). Using a sharp knife, score the pastry a half-inch in from the edge, being careful not to cut through. Divide leek mixture atop pastry squares, keeping border clear.

Bake for 12 minutes and then rotate pan and bake for another 10 until pastries are puffed and golden. Garnish with thyme sprigs.

Rating: Easy to make and even easier to eat. I'd recommend serving the squares (it makes 8 total if you do a full recipe with 2 sheets) as a sit-down with fork food. I plan to try them again in a smaller size to see, but I suspect that dividing them into smaller squares or rectangles would result in more finger-friendly versions. Tasty, at any rate, but what choice did it have with those ingredients?