Asparagus Ricotta Filo Tart

Of all the pastry kinds, puff pastry has always been my favorite because of it’s buttery, flaky layers. Until now when I recently tried something with filo pastry at home. I mean I have had baklava made with filo a lot, but the crispness of the pastry just gets lost somewhere in the richness of the sweet syrup. Having a real crunch of filo pastry in a savory tart is actually a game changer for me. I think now I have switch sides and if you ask me about my favorite pastry then I would say filo without any doubt. One because it has got more crunch and two it’s not as rich and as heavy as puff pastry. So you basically get the same flakiness and layers sans the fat, which a puff pastry could possibly yield. So it happened this past weekend that I baked this yummy brunch of Asparagus Ricotta Filo Tart as I had some ricotta leftover from the spinach and ricotta gnudi I made a week before. This tart was a quickie and came out to be a really good light meal which I paired with a simple salad of cherry tomatoes and a very basic vinaigrette dressing. All in all, it’s a summer meal which I’d take any day! And it’s so good and easy that you could even make it as a weeknight dinner.

Ingredients

• Filo pastry, 6 sheets
• 250 gm smooth ricotta
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 50 gm parmesan, grated
• 2 bunches of asparagus, ends trimmed
• handful of roughly chopped basil leaves
• black pepper and salt, to taste

Instructions

• 1
  Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• 2
  On a working surface, place one sheet of filo pastry, brush some olive oil on it. Layer with another pastry sheet and brush with olive oil. Repeat until all six layers are done. Place the pastry layers on the baking tray.
• 3
  In a bowl, mix together rest of the ingredients except asparagus to make a smooth paste. Spread it over pastry layer, leaving about 1 inch border on the edges. Arrange the asparagus snugly on the bed of ricotta mixture. Drizzle some more olive oil on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, until pastry is golden and crunchy. Cut into slices and serve with a salad of your choice.