Carrot Tart With Ricotta and Feta

Carrot Tart With Ricotta and Feta
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(4,000)
Notes
Read community notes

Carrots work beautifully in this simple tart, but onions, parsnips, beets, zucchini or pumpkin work just as well. The key is to cook the vegetables before putting them on the tart, since the moisture released by baking raw vegetables would make the puff pastry soggy and prevent it from rising. Once you remove the tart from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting to allow the cheese to firm up slightly. The tart can be served warm, or cooled to room temperature, and would make a great addition to a picnic.

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings
  • Flour, for rolling out dough
  • 1(14-ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
  • 1pound multicolored carrots, scrubbed and sliced lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick pieces
  • 1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
  • Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
  • 8ounces ricotta
  • 4ounces feta, crumbled
  • 1garlic clove, grated
  • Chopped fresh parsley, chervil or chives, for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

399 calories; 27 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 32 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 359 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 425 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll puff pastry into a 10-by-14-inch rectangle. Using a paring knife, lightly score a border around the perimeter of the puff pastry about a ¼ inch away from the edges. Place puff pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick the pastry inside the border using a fork to prevent puffing in the center. Bake on top rack until puff pastry is lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, toss carrots with 1 tablespoon oil, season generously with salt and pepper and spread into a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast carrots on the bottom rack (underneath the puff pastry) until the edges are golden brown and carrots are still crisp-tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    While puff pastry and carrots are in the oven, blend ricotta, feta and garlic in a food processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Step 4

    Spread the cheese mixture onto the puff pastry up to the border and arrange the carrots in a single layer on top. Bake until the carrots are tender and the edges of the cheese mixture are golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs before serving.

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4 out of 5
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Cooking Notes

Good foundation for a recipe, but I found it rather boring simply topped with carrots, so I added a few more spring delights: arugula, thinly sliced radish, snap peas, and some caramelized onion. With those additions, along with blending some thyme into the ricotta mixture, it was a delightful dish. :)

So similar to her Potato Tart with Goat Cheese and Thyme, this recipe of Sue Li is a gorgeous presentation. The Publix grocery has a similar puff pastry tart recipe with asparagus and gruyere that is also fabulous. (Google ‘Publix Asparagus Tart’.) Just shows that this can be such a versatile recipe with a change up of the vegetable cheese pairing and seasonings. I can think of lots of possibilities!!!

The feta ricotta spread is next level and carrots are far too boring to be the only thing you put on it. Peppers, onions, and mushrooms are a good addition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYV3I0sNOOY This link shows how to deal with puff pastry: scoring, pricking, rolling out, etc.

I made this last night as an appetizer and it impressed my guests. Luckily they spent all afternoon hiking in the Adirondacks so they had the appetite for carbs. I added parsnips and an extra clove of garlic to the cheese mixture and it was perfect. The frozen pastry dough I use from my super market had two sheets so I had one extra tort for breakfast this morning. I cracked four eggs on the second tort baked it till the eggs were perfect and had another impressive meal the morning after. ❤️

Made this yesterday - ended up making 2 because 2 sheets of pastry in TJoes package. I doubled the recipe and subbed the feta with 1/2 cup grated gruyere. I just mixed it with a spoon - no reason to dirty the processor. I used a mix of roasted veggies (heirloom carrots, 2 small potatoes, onions, mushrooms, shallots, yellow and red peppers, and a roasted heirloom tomato that had been cut very thin. I used an Italian herb mix and EVOO for the veggies before I put them in the oven. YUM YUM YUM

Roasting the some/all carrots with harissa might make it more exciting for you.

Until they add a video, here are a few suggestions - think of puff pastry as being like pie dough in terms of rolling it out to a certain size but keeping the rectangular shape instead of making it round. And “lightly scoring” means to take a small knife and gently cut a line through the top of the pastry only, not all the way through. Hope that helps!

The blender just blasts the cheese to the sides and the knives whirs without actually blending anything. Then you have to scrape it out and you lose a little bit of the ingredients in the process. There's not enough cheese to have a mass that a food processor can work with. Just vigorously stir the cheese and garlic in a bowl. It came out great for us.

I tried roasting my carrots with a little lemon juice and used purple carrots. I also made my own lemon ricotta instead and crumbled the feta on top. It was fabulous! Roasting whole cloves of garlic with the carrots and adding that on top might be good too.

My puff pastry totally puffed like crazy on the first bake, and I did prick it a lot with a fork. In fact, it puffed less on the edges where it wasn't pricked. So make sure you really get in there and prick it generously!

I assume they mean to cook the carrots and puff pastry at the same time. The pastry on the top rack, carrots on the bottom. That's how I am reading this.

I actually really liked this recipe but I get how it's very dependent on the quality of the carrots. I did use multi colored carrots so some would be less sweet than using all orange carrots. I also used thyme as the herb to finish which I chose purposely. It was delicious and super easy. Also, I was too lazy to get the food processor out and just mixed the cheeses together with the garlic. Worked perfectly fine.

Confused about the puff pastry. In the first paragraph, the recipe call to bake it for about 20 minutes, remove from the oven. But in the second paragraph, it says to bake the carrots under the puff pastry on the lower rack. Can anyone clarify?

Would you consider adding a brief video for novice cooks? Especially as it relates to "lightly" scoring the pastry, or even working the puff pastry as I'm not used to working with it. Thanks for your consideration.

Made two of these with DuFour pastry sheets. Used 1 lb of sliced Parnsips and 1+ lbs of multicolored carrots. SErved to my book group for lunch. Very tasty, like by all. created te recipe pretty much as described. I thought I had overcooked the carrots, but they tasted great. The pastry puffed up brilliantly, had to be patted down- no problem. I will dispense with 'scorng' next time. can't see that it had any effect.

Would this be good made the night before and eaten the next day cold? Thinking for a work potluck.

Admittedly the store-bought pasty I used was unexciting and cardboard-y, but I still found this dish a bit boring. Next time I would add tastier vegetables and look at some herbs that would compliment them. Having said that, it was an easy breezy brunch dish that looks lovely.

Such a gorgeous treat with those jewel-toned carrots! “A work of art” one diner said. Based on other reviews, I wanted to incorporate a little more flavor. Roasted the carrots with fresh thyme. Added a little lemon zest to the ricotta mix. I didn’t really taste the feta. Next time I might sprinkle some on the top, too.

Could you use filo instead?

I don't mean to be unpleasant, but this was one of the less appealing recipes I have ever made from NYT. There is something about the shriveled and gnaw-y texture of the carrots and their blandness combined with the grainy ricotta texture that made this something no one in my family enjoyed eating. As a recipe per se it is fine, but I agree with many other writers here who suggest piling on other toppings or exchanging the carrot for something else.

Dear Lord this is good. I've made other NYT recipes with puff pastry (always Dufour--such a treat when it's on sale), but cooking it first as in this recipe is MAGIC. Didn't need to cook the pastry but ten minutes, but the carrots kind of caramelized in fifteen, and then continued becoming perfect once on the tart. Also, I chopped up the carrot tops instead of using other herbs--sublime.

Added a little drizzle of honey - perfection.

425* for 20 minutes is too long to precook puff pastry

Drizzled with a bit of hot honey. Perfect.

Made exactly as suggested ( except carrots needed more time to get nicely roasted ) and added some dry thyme to cheese mixture. Delicious! Was on high rotation all summer for picnics and lunches.

Excellent, beautiful, and versatile recipe. Prick pastry liberally. I halved unpeeled carrots lengthwise and roasted separately from pastry (and longer, to caramelize) with coconut oil, S&P, baking soda - and a large shallot. Substituted goat cheese for feta because that's what I had; was very good. Did not bother with food processor. Added dried thyme and lemon zest to cheese mixture. Fresh Italian parsley garnish wakes the whole thing up. Keeps well, good at room temp or reheated in oven.

Yes, I used a pastry blender instead of the food processor. Why go through all that clean-up?

Added lemon zest to ricotta mixture and tossed carrots in pomegranate molasses after roasting/before putting on tart. Delicious and pretty easy, though caramelized onion/shallot would definitely take it up a level. Would serve 8 very lightly- cut into six slices and served with a lentil salad to bulk it up.

Made as is and found the feta too much. Second time I swapped in goats cheese and it was much better. Great with a salad and a sharp dressing

The puff pastry only needed 10 minutes to brown in Step 1. We think that Step 2 should really be first. Have everything ready to go into the oven at the same time. I have added peppers, zucchini, potatoes (par-boiled), and radishes. Also, mix the vegetables with some Herbes de Provence (or thyme) and some salt before roasting. And be sure to add herbs to the ricotta/ feta mixture. I use whatever is in the garden at the time.

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