Spinach Ricotta Tarts

Appetizer, Appetizers & Snacks, Snack

These little tarts are perfect as snacks, for picnics or as appetizers. The ricotta keeps everything creamy without being heavy, the spinach adds that slight mineral taste, and the peas give you little bursts of sweetness. All wrapped up in buttery puff pastry!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Servings 6

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Ingredients  

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• all-butter puff pastry
• 250 gr ricotta cheese
• 200 gr spinach or 90g frozen, thawed and squeezed dry
• 100 gr peas fresh or frozen
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 2 cloves garlic
• 30 gr Parmesan cheese
• ½ lemon zest
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Equipment

• 1 muffin tin 6-hole, standard size
• parchment paper
• round cutter about 10-11cm diameter (or a small bowl to trace around)
• mixing bowl
• rolling pin if needed
• frying pan

Instructions

1. 1. Prep your vegetables

   If you're using fresh spinach, wilt it down in a pan with a tiny splash of water, takes about 2 minutes. Squeeze out all the excess water when it's cool enough to handle. Properly squeeze it. Soggy filling makes soggy pastry, and nobody wants that. Blanch the peas for 2 minutes in boiling water if they're fresh, or just defrost them if frozen. Drain well.
2. 2. Make the filling

   Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds, just until it smells good, not until it browns. In a bowl, mix the ricotta, cooked spinach, peas, garlic, Parmesan, lemon zest and nutmeg. Season well with salt and pepper. Taste it, it should be properly seasoned because the pastry's quite rich and buttery.
3. 3. Prepare the pastry cases

   Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Roll out your pastry if needed, you want it about 3mm thick. Cut out 6 circles, roughly 10-11cm in diameter. You need them big enough to line your muffin tin holes with a bit of overhang. Press each circle gently into a muffin hole, letting the pastry come up the sides and flop over the edge a bit. Don't worry about it being perfect, that rustic look is what you're after.
4. 4. Fill the cases

   Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg, this'll give you that golden, shiny finish. Spoon the filling into each pastry case, filling them about three-quarters full. The pastry will puff up around the filling as it bakes, creating those lovely crispy edges.
5. 5. Bake

   Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry's golden brown and properly puffed. The cases should be crisp on the outside and the filling set but still creamy. Let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes, they'll firm up a bit and be easier to remove. Run a knife around the edge if they're sticking, then lift them out carefully. They're quite sturdy once cool.

Notes

• If you don’t have a muffin tin, you can use individual tartlet tins or even make free-form tarts on a baking sheet, just fold the pastry up around the filling.
• You can swap the peas for broad beans, or use asparagus tips when they’re in season. Courgette works too if you cook it down first to get rid of the water.
• Add some crumbled feta with the ricotta if you want it a bit saltier and more tangy.
• These keep in the fridge for 2 days. Reheat in the oven at 180°C for 8-10 minutes to crisp the pastry back up.
• If you’re making them ahead, assemble everything but don’t bake. Cover and refrigerate, then bake when you need them. Add 5 minutes to the cooking time if they’re cold from the fridge.
• Make sure your spinach is really well squeezed, excess water is the enemy of crisp pastry.

About this recipe

These Tarts with Ricotta, Spinach and Peas sit somewhere between Italian and French cooking, which is exactly where a lot of good food lives. The French have been making feuilletés, puff pastry cases filled with whatever’s around, for centuries, but the ricotta element is pure Italian influence from the border regions.

In France, you’re more likely to find these sorts of tarts made with goat’s cheese or crème fraîche, but ricotta’s lighter and doesn’t overpower the vegetables. It became popular in French home cooking in the 1970s and 80s when people started travelling to Italy more and bringing back ingredients and ideas.

The technique of pressing pastry into moulds and letting it puff up around a filling is classic French pâtisserie. You see it in everything from vol-au-vents to those little savoury bouchées they serve at apéros. The difference here is you’re not faffing about cutting lids or making perfectly neat edges, the rustic, folded-over look is what makes them appealing.

These became popular in Parisian bakeries in the 1990s when the whole “fait maison” movement took off. Suddenly everyone wanted things that looked homemade rather than factory-perfect. Bakers started deliberately leaving pastry edges rough and uneven because it looked more authentic. Turns out people will pay more for something that looks like their grandmother made it.

The spinach and ricotta combination is ancient, you find it in medieval Italian cooking manuscripts. Add peas and you’ve got something that became fashionable in French nouvelle cuisine in the 1970s, when chefs started caring about vegetables looking pretty on the plate rather than just being boiled to death.

These days, every good French traiteur sells some version of these. They’re practical, look good, and you can make them with whatever veg is in season.