Pear and Goat Cheese Tart

People, I haven't made anything this good in a long time. Do you have two hours to spare? How about $20? That's what I spent on this tart. So perhaps it's not exactly economical.... but sometimes you want to make something expensive and fabulous. This tart is both.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups of whole almonds
• Honey
• Olive Oil
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 12 sheets of frozen phyllo dough, thawed
• 5 ounces of goat cheese
• 2 green Anjou pears, thinly sliced
• Fresh spinach leaves
• Salt. (Duh.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Put the almonds and a touch of honey in the food processor. Whirl away until they are finely ground.
3. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil, the egg, vanilla, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Process until well-combined.
4. Remove the mixture to a bowl and mix in the goat cheese. Set aside.
5. Arrange one phyllo sheet on a cutting board, (making sure to cover the rest of the phyllo with a dish towel to keept hem from drying out). Carefully brush the sheet with olive oil. Top it with another phyllo sheet. Gently brush the second sheet with olive oil, too. Fold the sheets in half like a book. Loosely fold the edges of the phyllo up towards the center to create a little boat of sorts. You want it to be about 4 inches in diameter... but the world is your oyster. Make it however big you want. Set your little boat on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this process until you have six tart shells.
6.  Place a large dollop of the goat cheese and almond mixture in the center of your tart shell. Spread it out. Top it with some pear slices. Drizzle just a tiny bit of honey over the pears.
7. Bake the tarts for 20-23 minutes until golden brown.
8. Meanwhile, saute your spinach in a pan until wilted.
9. Take your tarts out of the oven, top them with the spinach, and EAT.

***NOTE: I think it would save soooo much time if you just sprayed the phyllo with cooking spray rather than spending all that time carefully brushing it with olive oil. Try it and let me know how it goes.

This makes six tarts. I ate two for dinner. Serve as a main dish or as a side.

(This savory tart was very much inspired by this sweet recipe from Cooking Light. I changed a few key ingredients, omitted some things, and added some others. But still, they should get the credit.)