Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Parmesan Shortbread with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Marinated Goat's Cheese



This was the first dish from the 13-courses dinner - I served this with champagne cocktails. It was really a huge hit - these are so incredibly tasty! And you can prepare them well in advance - it's fine to bake the shortbread one or two days ahead, and then just refresh them in a hot oven for a few minutes to make sure they are crisp. Let them cool before you add any topping though.

The recipe said that you'd get 40 shortbread - well, I got 25. I don't know if my cutter was bigger (I doubt it) or that mine were a lot thicker, but oh well. I only needed 24 anyway! I also had to add a few drops of water to get a supple dough - that wasn't in the original recipe...

Parmesan Shortbread with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Marinated Goat's Cheese
Makes about 24
from "Canapés"

60 g flour
salt, cayenne pepper (just a small pinch)
45 g cold butter, diced
60 g parmesan, grated
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix everything in a food processor and keep going until you have a dough. Add a few drops of water if you need to - I did.

Roll out the dough until it's about 1/2 cm thick. Make small cookies with a suitable cutter. Collect the scraps and roll out again, until all the dough is used up.

Put the cookies on a tray and put in the fridge for half an hour. Then move them to a baking sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool completely, and either top them or put them in an air-tight jar. (I bet they freeze well, too.)

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes for the topping
12 cherry tomatoes
olive oil
runny honey
salt
black pepper

Cut the tomatoes across the middle, and put them in a small oven proof dish, cut side up. Drizzle with oil and honey and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 200°C for 15-20 minutes, or until the tomatoes have shrunk a bit. Let them cool.

To top the shortbread, put the tomatoes on to each, and add small dice of marinated goat's cheese or feta cheese. (I used a garlic marinated goat's cheese - delicious!) Add a quarter of a black olive to each. Finish with a pinch of fresh green herbs - I used chervil.

Recipe in Swedish:
Parmesankex med rostade cocktailtomater och inlagd getost

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been following your blog for about a month (ever since being v v impressed by the delicious advent saffron buns of December 9th), and the menu you and your fellow kitchen gods and goddesses put together for trettondagsafton looks truly superb. Will you post the recipes so that a mere mortal like myself will have the opportunity to try and recreate the dishes?

Anonymous said...

I forgot to congratulate you on the arrival of the beautiful babies. They are so so sweet.

Anne said...

Waspgoddess - thank you! :) I will post all the recipes I made - which is this one, the champagne cocktails, the pear salad with roquefort, and the nut truffle cake. Hopefully most of the others will be posted too, on my friends blogs, and I'll point you to them as they come up :)

And thank you for noticing the kittens :) More pics this weekend!

Anonymous said...

This weekend? OH GOSH - why do we have to wait that long to see the babies again!
Im checking your site twice a day for them
>^..^<

Anonymous said...

We loved these, Anne. They were absolutely fantastic (and the drink as well).

Kalyn Denny said...

Beautiful photo. Sounds like a very wonderful dinner even without the puppies.

Anne said...

mb, sorry! :) Mommy Glinda really doesn't appriciate me taking photos right now, she gets irritated when I steal her babies :)

Dagmar, weren't they great? I'm definitely making these again.

Kalyn, thank you :)

Anonymous said...

You have a lovely blog, Anne. I love the recipes and absolutely adore the beautiful pictures.