We adore this caprese puff pastry! Flaky puff pastry is layered with fresh basil pesto, juicy ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and a balsamic glaze. It’s a lovely weeknight meal or the perfect summer appetizer!
This is a sheet pan of summer right here.
This puff pastry is covered with the best pesto ever, ripe, juicy tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, balsamic glaze and a sprinkling of parmesan. It tastes like summer and is so delicious that I can hardly stand it.
It’s no secret that I freak out over everything puff pastry. Make it into a pizza, a tart, a hand pie, soup topping, dessert and more – I absolutely love it. It’s such a great kitchen hack, pretty accessible, easy to use and not to mention, incredibly buttery, flaky and delicious. I can never pass it up!
I’ve made so many different versions of a puff pastry pizza over the years. Our favorite is probably my weeknight white pizza – it’s a hit with just about everyone. This one is similar but with tons of pesto and basil and balsamic.
I start the puff pastry with my favorite pesto! Of course. I make my pesto at least once a week. You could also use a store-bought version. It’s a staple that I must have in my fridge at all times in the summer months because I use it so frequently. In this case, I spread it on the puff pastry as the first layer, or our sauce. It adds a perfect depth of flavor and goes great with tomatoes and mozzarella.
When it comes to the tomatoes, I like to use ripe tomatoes and salt them a bit before placing them on the puff pastry. Then I pat them dry with a paper towel once they have released some of their juices.
This helps to keep the puff pastry from becoming watery. It’s key!
Another key here is to tear your fresh mozzarella into small pieces. The fresh mozzarella slices are a bit too thick and heavy for the thin puff pastry. By tearing the cheese into pieces, not only do we cover more surface area with the cheese, we avoid weighing down parts of the pastry. It also helps prevent the cheese from becoming watery too.
Oh and a second option is to use grated mozzarella or an italian blend cheese. My favorite brand is tillamook and I find it at Target.
Puff pastry only cooks for about 25 minutes. It’s super flaky and the perfect thin crust. I drizzle everything with syrupy balsamic glaze when it comes out of the oven. Lots of parmesan, another drizzle of pesto and some fresh basil are the finishing touches on this baby! It’s such a great easy weeknight meal or even a wonderful appetizer.
And while I tend to prefer puff pastry meals shortly after they are cooked, reheating this for lunch the next day is pretty good too. You lose a little of the structured flakiness, but the flavor is still incredible and it’s so satisfying.
This is one of those easy meals that I usually have all the ingredients for – especially in the summer. It tastes fancy and elevated, but it’s very simple. (more…)
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