Makes 24 cupcake-sized tartlets.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 12 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into 12 pieces, plus more butter or non-stick cooking spray for greasing tartlet cups
- pinch of salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons iced water
For the filling:
- 1 cup good quality, imported, pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- 1 2-ounce can anchovy fillets, well drained
- good quality olive oil
- crumbled blue cheese
Directions
Crust:
- In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, process the flour, butter and salt for 15 seconds, until it resembles coarse cornmeal. With the motor running, pour 2 tablespoons of the water through the feed tube and process until the dough just holds together. Add more water by the teaspoon, if necessary. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. As you wrap the pastry up in the plastic, form it into a flat disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Butter, or spray with non-stick cooking spray, 24 standard-size tartlet shells or muffin cups.
- Center a rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a thin circle. Cut out 24 circles to fit muffin cups. Place the dough in the prepared cups, bringing the dough only halfway up the side of the cups. Prick the bottom of the dough with tines of a fork and refrigerate cups for 20 minutes.
- Line the pastry shells with foil, fill with dry beans or pastry weights (small nuts and bolts work well also) and bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights and continue baking 3 to 5 minutes, until shells are slightly brown. (The pastry shells will have shrunk. Do not be alarmed.) Let cool on a wire rack. Fill, or stack in a plastic bag and freeze. Defrost to room temperature before filling. (Note: this crust would also make an 11-inch tart shell, or 36 miniature tart shells)
Filling:
- Combine all of the ingredients except for the oil and blue cheese in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, and process just until the mixture begins to look smooth. Scrape into a bowl and stir in the olive oil by hand, a little at a time, until you have a pretty smooth paste.
- Divide the filling among the baked tartlet shells. (There will be just a little bit of filling on each tartlet; that's OK, the taste is strong.) Just before serving, lightly sprinkle blue cheese over the top of each and pass under the broiler for 1 minute. Serve warm.
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