Easy mushroom tart - "fancy" food!

If you're tired of boxed mac-n-cheese and hot dogs and want to make something that makes you feel like a real, fancy grown up without having to be a Food Network star, give this "fancy" recipe a try. This dish is probably best served as an hor d'oeuvres or appetizer, but you can use it as a nice side dish as well. It comes together pretty quickly since mushrooms and spinach take hardly any time to cook at all.

It's made with puff pastry, which is already a fancy-food by itself. If you're a kitchen wizard and have that kind of time, you can make your own puff pastry dough, but for us mortals, store-bought puff pastry is a wonder product. Puff pastry is one of those things that make it look like you're a cultured chef without giving away the kitchen short-cut image equivalent of a clip-on tie. It comes in a box, frozen and folded up, and all you have to do is let it thaw out and let the magic happen.

I got the inspiration for this recipe from a Martha Stewart one online. If you're interested in doing it her much more anal-retentive way, be my guest and click here. This way I'm telling you is pretty much the same thing, just with all the OCD parts removed for your convenience.

So to start, pre-heat the oven to 400 and get a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper (not essential, but it makes it a lot easier to remove the pastry if you have it). Let your frozen puff pastry sheet sit out a while, or just thaw in the microwave on defrost and unfold it on your cookie sheet. Once it is fairly soft, push on the dough with your hands (or a rolling pin, if so inclined) to spread it out a little more. Just try to make it a little thinner and a little longer/wider to fill more of the cookie sheet. Doesn't have to a perfect square, unless you want to be like Martha, then get out your slide rule and trim away. It's going to taste good either way, so do whatever you want.

Now you need to make a "frame" for the filling you'll put in the middle. Just take a knife and lightly draw a slightly smaller rectangle inside your dough, so that you basically have a 1" border around the edge, like a picture frame. That will be your crust. Also take a fork and prick the dough all over in the middle to prevent any big gas bubbles. Now, pop the prepared crust in the oven for a few minutes, maybe about 10-15 minutes, until it looks like it's puffing up a little and slightly browning.

While that's pre-baking, you can make the filling. Get half an onion (I think a red one is best for this, but others are fine) and slice thin so all the pieces are that half-moon shape. Sauteé in a pan with some olive oil until they are just translucent and soft. Slice up a whole bunch of mushrooms, maybe two of those 8 oz tubs worth, again thin. White buttons or cremini will work best for this. Turn the heat down to low and add all the mushrooms. Stir that up and now add about 5 oz of baby spinach. Martha's recipe called for 10 oz, but that seems like way too much. You really only need a few handfuls. Stir all that up on the heat until the mushrooms mostly brown and the spinach is wilted. Add salt, pepper and more olive oil as you like.

Okay, filling is done and probably so is your crust! Dump the whole filling onto the center of your pastry and spread out to the edges of the border you created. You should now have a nice picture frame of green stuff.

Here's the fun part...goat cheese! I was very fortunate and found a small container of sheep's milk cheese from a local cheesery I love ON SALE at the health food store and it tasted AMAZING with this. But it doesn't have to be fancy to be good. Just get one of those logs of goat cheese or even goat cheese spread and start putting small blobs of it all over the green stuff. Do as much or little as you want. Alright, now back in the oven! Bake this for another 15 minutes or until you see the cheese is kind of melty and starting to brown a bit. Crust should be golden too.

Ta-da, fancy food is ready! Your guests will be amazed. I advise cutting this with a pizza cutter so you don't smear the toppings. You can cut it in squares, triangles or long strips. ENJOY!