Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarts

I love Ina Garten. 

And I'm pretty fond of Val.

She gave me Ina's cookbook, "Back to Basics"

for my birthday. 

Actually, I love Val and am pretty fond of Ina.

Val is a quiet woman but is very passionate about things. 

It's kinda cool if you think about it.

 Someone who feels very strongly about many things and 

those around her know it, but somehow she 

is able to make us aware of those things without pounding us 

over the head with her views. You have to respect that. 

It cracks me up that my posts will start out being about one thing

 and then inevitably turn and wind up being about the 

people in my life. God has blessed me with

 amazing people in my path. 

But back to the food. 

How cool is this picture?

I really am not good at the photo side of this blog thing

but I think this one catches all the components of the tart.

Ina's recipe was for four 6 inch tarts with one

large slice of tomato in the middle.

I wanted to feed 6 people dinner and felt the tarts would

need accompaniments. So, I switched to mini tarts and

 bought a pint of small mixed heirloom tomatoes. 

Making 18 mini tarts was a bit labor intensive but was totally 

worth the effort. 

Then I got a vision of how I wanted the plate to look. 

I cooked mini farfalle, dressed it with some Rosso Pesto

(that I picked up at Aldi) some toasted pine nuts, fresh basil and a little

shaved parm on top. Then a little green salad with 

thinly sliced apples, craisins and walnuts tossed 

with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette. 

Once again my photographic abilities leave a bit to be desired

but you get the idea. 

And just to come full circle and end with a people thing, 

I love that Ina eats her cooking.

Just saying, you can't really trust a skinny chef.....

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tomato-and-goat-cheese-tarts-recipe/index.html