Bacon, onion and gruyere tart

I’ve come across this on a few menus over the years, and yesterday I had a craving for the savory, sweet dish.

I found a pretty simple recipe online (thanks, epicurious) and gave it a shot…the outcome? You tell me!

Bacon, mushroom and caramalized onion tart with gruyere cheese

What you’ll need

• 1 box frozen puff pastry
• 1 medium sized yellow onion
• Thick-cut sliced bacon
• 1 box of mushrooms (I used shitaki)
• 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup of sour cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Gruyere cheese, sliced
• fresh thyme
• salt/pepper
• another egg yolk (mixed with some water as a wash for the pastry)

What you’ll do

• First take out your puff pastry to let it thaw
• Mix together your ricotta cheese, sour cream, oil and the egg yolk

• Next render some fat off your bacon.  Drain and store for cooking your onions and mushrooms.  Continue to cook the bacon until it is crispy
• Keep your bacon, and reheat the rendered fat and sautee your onions and mushrooms until soft, adding your thyme, salt and pepper a few minutes before done
• By now, your pastry should be thawed.  Roll it out a bit and use a knife to draw a border 1/4 of an inch away from the edge (be sure not to actually cut the pastry, just pierce it)
• Smooth a layer of the ricotta mixture onto the pastry, being careful not to go over your quarter inch border

• Add a layer of the mushroom and onion mixture, repeat

• Top whole thing with slices of gruyere and crispy bacon
• Put your tart in the oven for about 35 minutes at 400

The tart will puff up and your filling will sit snugly within that border you made.  Feel free to substitute the ingredients (try adding some goats cheese after it bakes instead of melting gruyere, omit the bacon and try using a few different varieties of mushrooms.)