Goat Cheese Tart

First, this is another installment of free cheese posting. More on that below.

Apparently, everyone likes the goat cheese tart. Right after I made this I got an e-mail from Cooks Illustrated (They’re not shy about sending e-mails, but at least they have a remove me link. I’m a glutton for their punishment.) giving one of their preferred recipes. This one is not theirs.

When Ile de France (http://iledefrancecheese.com/) offered to send cheese this second time I had the choice between Camembert and Goat. My thought was that Camembert is very similar to Brie, which I enjoyed last time. As for the Goat, I’m a huge fan of Mackenzie Creamery’s local goat cheese (haven’t really had the chance to take in Lake Erie’s yet), but have also always enjoyed the imported French stuff. I think there’s difference, and they’re both good in their own right. So the goat option was a pretty easy choice (Note to Alex: While the goat is very good, this is the one I'd really like to try.). Figuring out what to make was a different story.

When I have food related questions, I like to take a step back and think, WWPBD? What would Parker Bosley do? He likes French food, he’s Midwestern, is there more of an expert? So I got in touch, and sure enough he had a few ideas, ranging from baked chevre to goat cheese stuffed chicken breast. They all sounded good. I went with his tart.

Ingredients:
- Goat cheese (room temp.)
- Rosemary (minced)
- Pie dough (I used Jacques Pepin’s recipe)
- Red peppers (roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped)
- Cream
- Salt and pepper

Method:
- Preheat oven to 400 and blind bake tart shell for about 20 min.
- While that's baking simmer roasted pepper in some cream with salt and pepper
- When tart shell is done blind baking take it out of the oven, plop some goat cheese in there, spread it out as evenly as possible, and place it back in the oven
- Puree red pepper and cream mixture in blender (check for seasoning)
- About 10 min. after the tart is cooking with the cheese take it out of the oven, smooth out the cheese, and place it back in the oven until the shell just starts to brown
- While the tart is finishing in the oven, mince some rosemary
- Place some of the red pepper mixture on a plate and top with the finished, warm, tart
- Garnish with minced rosemary

Some white wine, a simple salad, and you have as good a lunch as one could hope for.

As for Parker’s advice, all the wonderfulness of this dish is his. The errors are my own.