An easy recipe with a few but fine ingredients that will take you around 45' in total. It fits perfectly as a first course or appetizer at any table, formal or festive, where in the latter it can be part of an exquisite buffet, as it attracts you with its rustic look.

It could (with some extra effort of course) be done in individual ceramic bowls with some adjustments to the quantities to be presented as a first course at a formal dinner.

Many thanks to Cucina di Caruso!

• 3-4 leeks (depending on your utensil and the size of the leeks)
• 90 gr. fesh cream
• 30 + 10 gr. butter
• 70 gr. prosciutto Stremmenos
• 50 gr. Parmesan
• 1 sheet of ready-made frozen puff pastry
• Dill

Preparation

1. Be sure to remove the puff pastry sheet from the freezer about 2 hours before cooking and allow it to thaw at room temperature until it is thawed but cold. Better yet, take it out of freezer the day before and let it thaw slowly in the fridge to be sure.
   Secret: Puff pastry should always be cold, either in the fridge or just thawed. If it is at room temperature or hot, it does not work as well.
2. Peel the leks and slice them into equal-height slices (approx. 1.5 cm) so that they will sit evenly on the pie.

Saute the leeks

1. In a non-stick pan that evenly fits the leeks placed upright, put 30 gr. butter to melt on low heat and then add the leeks.
2. Cover the leeks with a lid or other pan so they caramelize from the water vapor over their full height.
3. In 5 minutes when the leeks have taken color on the bottom, turn them upside down until they start to wither (about 10 minutes).
4. Allow for a little black color, we want to slightly burn the vegetables, it gives flavor and it is not dangerous.

Add cream and cheese to the leeks

1. Add 90 gr. of cream and 50 gr. parmesan on and around the leeks, sprinkling some cheese over the leeks to gratinate (= baking with cheese in the oven that we want to make a crust).
2. Remove from the heat and allow the temperature to drop.

Prepare puff pastry & oven

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C with air.
2. In the utensil you choose so that the leeks can fit without many gaps, butter the bottom and sides well.
3. Place the puff pastry sheet on top and cut off the excess leftovers with scissors or a knife.
4. Then turn the sides inwards and with a fork make holes in the puff pastry at the bottom so that it does not swell.

Fill the tart

1. From the pan in which you sautéed the leeks, take them one by one with tweezers and carefully place them relatively tightly in the pan.
2. Pour the cream and the cheese left in the pan between them to go everywhere, but be careful not to spoil the leeks that have plenty of cheese on them.
3. Then add a little dill and finally cut the prosciutto into slices and place them between the leeks, so that each leek has at least one bite of prosciutto glued to it.
4. Finally, with a little melted butter, brush the string, the edges of the dough that do not have fat on them to get a nice color in baking.

Bake the tart

Put the tart to bake in the preheated oven at 180 ° C with air, for 30', so that the dough turns brown, the leeks are well melted and the cheese is gratinated on top.

Serving

Let the tart rest for 15' before serving to bind the ingredients and reach a temperature where you can enjoy it properly. Do not forget that leeks keep heat inside for a long time and can burn you if you hurry. On the other hand, just seeing and smelling this tart, I understand how difficult it may be to hold out… I got burned too!