Fig Tart

All I can say is: thank the Lord for frozen puff pastry dough, which makes so many things possible. And if you make it yourself, so much the better. I freeze mine in whatever size slabs come off the work table. It can be inconvenient, since virtually every printed recipe that calls for puff pastry is written to accommodate the standard packaged stuff, but hell, I can live with non-standard sizes. And how hard are puff pastry tarts? Just roll and cut the dough to any shape you like and lay down the toppings. For the wife’s late summer department picnic I put together three of them: tomato with thyme and parmigiano custard, caramelized onion and hog jowl (hey, when in Rome…) and this one simply with figs and goat cheese. What’s so nice about good puff pastry (again, especially when it’s homemade) is that its flavor and richness give you the flexibility to either make a filling, or just toss ingredients on top like a pizza. As I’m fond of saying: with this much butter there is no losing, only degrees of winning.