Puff Pastry Tarts with Potatoes & Ricotta

About this recipe

Crispy, golden puff pastry tarts topped with creamy ricotta and tender potatoes. An impressive yet easy vegetarian starter or side dish that can be made ahead for stress-free entertaining.

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At the time of sharing this, Christmas is just ten days away! I love feeling the holiday love and joy early on! Perhaps to some of you ten days out of Christmas is actually quite late, but I’ve had my tree up since American Thanksgiving!

I’ve received comments multiple times on my social media platforms that appetizers are a personal pain for many folks. When you’re so tired from putting your all into the main dish and the dessert, you just don’t tend to have the energy for appetizers!

However, no need to opt for the frozen appetizers anymore! I’m always a proponent of using what you have on hand, so if you’ve got some frozen butter puff pastry in the freezer and a few other staple ingredients, then you’re ready to assemble and bake! Enjoy the holidays hassle-free with these Puff Pastry Potato Tarts with ricotta and truly take this time to put your heart on a plate by making this recipe as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can get started on your cooking journey for free any time by signing up to my email newsletter, plus all of my latest recipes will be sent straight to your inbox!

Don’t forget to watch the video to follow along with how to assemble our incredible Puff Pastry Potato Tarts! It would mean a lot to me if you would please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and be sure to press the bell button so you’re notified when all of my video recipes go live to go hand-in-hand with the written ones! Let’s get baking!

Baked puff pastry tart with sliced potatoes and ricotta on a wooden board.

Equipment Needed for Puff Pastry Potato Tarts

Baked puff pastry tart topped with creamy ricotta and crispy roasted potato slices on a wooden board.

Ingredients for Potato & Ricotta Tarts

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD or press the “Jump to Recipe” button in order to see the full ingredient list and their quantities and to save the recipe for later. You can also scale the recipe based on how many tarts you want to make, and you’ll know exactly how much of the ingredients you’ll need! By default, this recipe makes one tart that makes six slices.

Ingredients for potato and ricotta tarts arranged on a wooden board, including potatoes, ricotta, butter puff pastry, herbs, and seasonings.

Frozen puff pastry: Not many people make their own puff pastry from scratch because it is just EXTREMELY tedious! I’ve never done it before and I don’t think I ever will! Of course you can make your own if you really want to, but otherwise simply thaw the frozen puff pastry from the store overnight or at least 4-6 hours prior to making your tarts.
Potatoes: I used russet potatoes for this recipe because that’s what I had on hand. I think most potatoes would be just fine here, but I like how the russet potatoes got really crispy!
Ricotta: Use traditional ricotta or extra smooth ricotta cheese if desired! If you’re very ambitious, try making your own ricotta cheese! It’s quite quick and easy, actually!
Sage and rosemary: Fresh herbs for our topping. As I describe in my free motivational guide to be creative in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, if you’ve got ingredients that will spoil and they make a suitable substitute, then use those first before going out to buy something new! In this case, you can experiment with lots of different fresh herbs, such as chives, thyme, or dill.
Maple syrup: For a touch of sweetness to highlight the ricotta.
Garlic cloves: Minced. We will use this garlic to make garlic butter, which we will apply over the puff pastry crust and for topping.
Lime juice: Adds some acidity to the sweet ricotta and the spicy potatoes.
Spices: Cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder. These will be used to season the potatoes and add some heat.
Salt and pepper: Essential seasoning for the ricotta cheese.
Butter: Unsalted butter to make garlic butter, as described above.

How to Make Puff Pastry Tarts

Defrost the puff pastry for 4-6 hours in the refrigerator until it has softened.

Preheat the oven to 400 F or 375 F if using the convection setting.

Use a spiralizer and the flat blade attachment to thinly slice the potato. Alternatively, you can use a mandoline or a knife to thinly slice instead.

Using a spiralizer with flat blade attachment to thinly slice a potato for the tart filling.

Thinly sliced potatoes spiralized and arranged on a white plate next to a white kitchen tool.

Season with garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne and add 1 Tbsp of molten butter. Massage the spices well.

Thinly sliced potatoes being seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne in a glass bowl.

Hand drizzling melted butter over thinly sliced potatoes seasoned with spices in a glass bowl

Thinly sliced potatoes seasoned with spices and butter in a glass bowl, ready for the tart assembly.

In a bowl, add the ricotta, maple syrup and lime juice. Mix well and set aside for now.

Take the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter and add the minced garlic along with the butter to a bowl. Microwave to melt the butter.

Ricotta mixture combined with maple syrup and lime juice in a glass bowl with a spoon, beside sliced potatoes and melted garlic butter.

Maple syrup being drizzled into a bowl of ricotta mixture next to melted garlic butter and sliced potatoes.

Hand mixing ricotta, maple syrup, and lime juice in a glass bowl with a spatula.

Chop the fresh herbs and set aside for now.

Fresh rosemary sprigs chopped on a red cutting board next to minced garlic.

Chopping fresh rosemary herbs on a red cutting board with a chef's knife

Place a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet and roll out the pastry over the baking sheet. Spread the ricotta mixture over the puff pastry leaving a generous 1 to 1 1/2 inch gap around the edges. Sprinkle some of the freshly chopped herbs over the ricotta and then add the potatoes over the ricotta, make sure not to have multiple layers of potatoes overlapping each other.

Hands folding the edges of puff pastry on parchment paper over a baking sheet.

Ricotta mixture spread on puff pastry sheet with border left around edges for folding.

Ricotta mixture spread on puff pastry with fresh herbs sprinkled on top, ready for folding.

Ricotta mixture being spread onto puff pastry sheet with a spatula, leaving a border around edges.

Fold the edges of the puff pastry all around and then season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Brush the garlic butter from earlier around edge of the pastry and sprinkle the rest over the potatoes and add more freshly chopped herbs.

Hands folding the edges of puff pastry around sliced potatoes on parchment paper.

Baked puff pastry tart with sliced golden potatoes on ricotta filling and folded pastry edges in a white box.

Baked puff pastry tart topped with sliced roasted potatoes, rosemary, and black pepper on a white plate.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked with some crispy edges and the pastry is golden brown.

Golden baked puff pastry tart topped with sliced potatoes, rosemary, and garlic butter on parchment paper.

Golden baked puff pastry tart topped with thinly sliced potatoes, fresh rosemary, and crispy edges.

Let the tart cool down for 10-15 minutes before serving. Then, cut into 6 slices.

Golden baked puff pastry tart with thinly sliced potatoes and herbs on a wooden board.

Pizza cutter slicing a golden baked puff pastry tart topped with thinly sliced potatoes and herbs.

Enjoy!

Hand holding a slice of puff pastry tart topped with crispy potato slices and herbs.

Tips & Tricks for an Incredible Holiday Puff Pastry Tart

To chop the sage, stack the leaves with the biggest at the bottom the smallest at the top. Roll tight and then slice away.
For rosemary, you only need to pluck and chop the leaves. The stalk can be used to make a homemade broth or discarded.
Puff pastry is the most delicious when it’s slightly warm but not hot so let the tart cool down before serving. The best way to slice the flaky edges is to use a serrated knife and then slicing the rest of the pie using a pizza wheel.
Take the tart to the next level by layering mozzarella or cheddar over the ricotta and then adding the potatoes for a cheesy richness.

Three slices of golden puff pastry tart topped with thinly sliced potatoes and herbs on a wooden board.

Can you make Puff Pastry Tarts in Advance?▼

Of course! This is another reason to make these incredibly easy and tasty Puff Pastry Tarts with Potatoes & Ricotta! It’s always ideal when you can prepare the appetizer in advance for a special Christmas dinner so that you have the time to really put your heart into the main dish, and perhaps even the dessert!

How to Store Potato & Ricotta Tarts▼

Since we only have some cheese in this recipe, depending on how fresh your ricotta was when preparing your Potato & Ricotta Tarts, you can keep these in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week.

To reheat these tarts, simply preheat the oven to 350 F. Then, reheat for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the puff pastry is hot and the potatoes are crispy.

Golden puff pastry tarts topped with thinly sliced roasted potatoes on a wooden board.

More Puff Pastry Appetizers!

Mini Sausage Rolls

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!

Recipe by Anadi Misra