Tomato and Feta Phyllo Tart

One day long ago, I was watching a cooking show about some sort of fancy phyllo pastry involving spicy soppressata, an Italian salami that I love. I bought the phyllo and then never made the pastry. (Typical procrastinate-y me.) The phyllo has been sitting in my freezer for months.

I knew if I waited until I found that recipe again and then went and got whatever ingredients I needed in order to make it, I'd probably never get around to using the phyllo. We had lots of grape and cherry tomatoes from our garden sitting around, so I decided to make a tart with those tomatoes and some delicious feta instead. You can't go wrong with that combination!

It was the first time I worked with phyllo so it was a little slow going, but the final product was very pretty and not too heavy. The pastry was nice and flaky, the tomatoes were fresh and tasted great with the richness of the feta. We had the tart for dinner with some soup, but I think it would be great to make as an appetizer or for a get-together.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of frozen phyllo pastry
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1 pint of ripe cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 3 teaspoons of dried oregano, divided
• 150 g of feta cheese, crumbled
• Pepper to taste

Defrost the phyllo according to the package instructions. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready before you start working with the phyllo pastry, as it can dry out easily and you'll need to work quickly.

Line a large cookie sheet with silicone baking mat. (I suppose you can also either use cooking spray, oil or butter, or parchment paper to line the cookie sheet, but I can't vouch for the results.) You may also want to grease the edges of the cookie sheet that are not covered by the baking mat.

Lay one sheet of the phyllo pastry on the baking mat and brush it with olive oil, working from the edges inwards to keep the pastry from drying out. While you are working, cover the rest of the phyllo with a damp towel so that it doesn't dry out. Be careful not to wet the towel too much, though, as that could make the phyllo mushy and make the layers stick together.

Add another layer of pastry on top of the first and brush the new layer with olive oil. Repeat until half of the pastry is used up. Sprinkle a teaspoon of oregano on top of the pastry, then continue to add layers and olive oil until the pastry is completely used up.

Brush the top layer with olive oil. Spread the tomatoes and feta evenly on top of the pastry, leaving the outer two inches of the edges of the pastry bare on all four sides so that you can roll them up to form a crust. Roll the outside edges of the pastry up so that it forms an edge about an inch wide on all sides.

Brush a bit of olive oil on top of the feta and tomatoes. Sprinkle the remaining oregano on top of the pastry, as well as pepper to taste. You shouldn't need any salt, as the feta is quite salty on its own.

Bake the tart at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. If the edges become golden brown before the tart is done baking, cover the edges with aluminum foil. Serve hot and enjoy!

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