Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

I am back to creating dishes by throwing together the leftover bits and pieces from other meals. I hate throwing away perfectly good food, and do it more often than I would like, despite the fact that I have been reducing recipes several times over to yield smaller amounts.

I have been challenging myself to find new and exciting ways to repurpose leftovers. I almost always have a box of puff pastry in the freezer, and really I think that just about anything can be gussied up by wrapping it in puff pastry or presented as a tart. Slap some cheese on it, garnish with a sprinkling of fresh herbs or a drizzle of some sort of sauce and presto, you've got "something fancy for supper," which is something that my kids are really big into at the moment.

They don't have to know that those are the leftover caramelized onions from the French Onion soup 2 weeks ago that I froze. All they know is that it looks nice and tastes delicious.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

Makes 2 small tarts

Ingredients

• 1 oz. herbed goat cheese
  
• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed*
  
• 1/2 cup caramelized onions
  
• 2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
  
• 1/2 cup Emmenthaler cheese, shredded
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Cut two 6 inch rounds out of thawed puff pastry and press them into 5 inch tart molds.
   
   
2. Break the goat cheese into pieces and add them to the pastry shells.
   
   
3. Divide the caramelized onions between the two shells and top with shredded Emmenthaler and crumbled bacon.
   
   
4. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the edges of the shells have puffed up and browned.
   
   
5. Let cool 5 minutes and then serve.
   

Notes:

• One sheet of puff pastry yielded 4 rounds, and some scraps, but I only made use two of the rounds for these  caramelized onion and goat cheese tarts. I used the other two rounds to make ham and cheese tarts, recipe coming soon. 
• I will put the puff pastry scraps to use soon, most likely as a dessert or a snack. 

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