Black Olive and Goat Cheese Tart with Sicilian Orange Salad

I was watching Anthony Sedlak on the Main (Food Network) and he made the most mouth-wateringly good looking meal. In fact it looked so good I could imagine tasting it. So that's what I decided had to be made for dinner. I took a walk to Planet Organic and picked up top grade ingredients, got home and dutifully pre-made all I could, roasting what I could ... before the clock struck 5:00 and dinner had to be made in earnest.

Here are the roasted tomatoes:

Black Olive Tapenade with Basil Pesto: (I had some MAJOR TROUBLE here ... 1.Didn't realize the olives I picked up to supplement what I already had at home were NOT PITTED. Let me tell you, the sound of the blender blade hitting olive pits can be a strange, unfamiliar sound. As I tilted my head in wonderment of what that noise was, I kept the blender going ... Arrg - had to manually pick out all the pits that were intermixed with the minced olives). THEN realized I added about oh ... 1 cup too much olive oil to the mix. Spent a while draining that out. End result:

Sicilian Orange Salad - can I just say how DELICIOUS this salad is?? Made up for the tapenade fiasco above. I learnt something cool about onions doing this salad, too. Anthony gave a tip saying that once you thinly slice the red onions, stick them in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes. This takes the oniony sting out of them. I have to say this is the only way I prepare onions for salads now ... gives a much more mellow taste.

And here's the main kahuna: Black Olive and Goat Cheese Tart. Buttery Richness would be the two main describing words for this one. Note: From my experience, I will never EVER take it for granted that Puff Pastry comes pre-made in ready-to-go sheets ever again. Ever. I had to pick some up at the last minute and was surprised to find it in a hard, unthawed block that needed to be thawed and rolled out. Set me back a little in time.

Final Product. I'm guessing we/I enjoyed a glass of wine with this meal ... took the edge off all those cooking blunders, but I think this meal really does call for a glass of vino. Just to give it the sophistication it deserves.
Bon Appetite!!

Let me just say, the below recipe is taken from the food network at the following link:

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/ontv/hosts/Anthony-Sedlak/recipe.html?dishID=8484&hostid=41633

Yield: 4
Ingredients
Oven Dried Tomatoes
4 roma tomatoes, halved, cored and seeds removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 sprig thyme
salt and pepper
Pesto
2 cups basil leaves, washed and dried well
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste
Tapenade
2 cups pitted black olives
4 cloves roasted garlic
1 cup olive oil
1 10 x 10 inch sheet pre-rolled butter puff pastry, (1/2 450g package)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup basil leaves, washed and roughly torn
1/4 cup goat cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
Sicilian Orange Salad
3 oranges, peel and most of pith removed
1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced and soaked in cold water
1/4 cup torn basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Sicilian black olives, pitted
1 tablespoon salt
pepper to taste

Directions
Oven Dried Tomatoes
To prepare oven dried tomatoes, preheat oven to 375. Lightly toss tomatoes, thyme and oil to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange tomatoes on rack placed above baking tray; bake until tomatoes are dried, but still tacky to the touch, about 30 minutes
Pesto
To prepare pesto, combine ingredients in blender and pulse until smooth paste is formed. Season to taste with salt.
Tapenade
To prepare tapenade, combine ingredients in blender and pulse until smooth paste is formed.
Sicilian Orange Salad
To prepare oranges, peel and cut each orange along segments into eight pieces. Season orange slices well with salt.
Toss together with drained red onion slices, basil, chilli flakes, olive oil and olives. Adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if necessary.
Black Olive and Goat Cheese Tart
Preheat oven to 425. Lightly flour board and roll puff pastry to form a 8x12 inch rectangle. (Excess puff pastry can be frozen for future use.)
Transfer to parchment lined baking tray. Pierce puff in several places with fork.
Spread pesto thinly on top, leaving a 1/2 inch border around edges. Spread dollops of tapenade on top. Arrange oven dried tomatoes on top and crumble spoonfuls of goat cheese evenly across tart.
Brush egg yolk lightly on border and sprinkle grated parmesan on top. Bake at 425 until edges become light golden and puffy, about 8-10 minutes.
Top with torn basil leaves. Let cool slightly before serving.