What is chorizo? Chorizo is a pork sausage that’s highly seasoned. It’s also one of my favorite ingredients. You can find it as fresh, uncooked (what we call for in our recipe below) or as smoked sausage. It’s usually flavored with spices like smoked paprika or chili peppers. Depending on who made it, chorizo can be pretty spicy. I like that, especially when it comes to these mini tarts. Thanks to the chorizo, we get to pack a whopping amount of flavor into the tarts even though they are miniature in size. If you are sensitive to spicy foods, these tarts would be excellent with fresh Italian or German sausage. Whether you go with the chorizo or another type of fresh sausage, you will need to remove the sausage from the casing. To do this, simply cut a slit down the sausage and peel the casing away. Recipe updated, originally posted October 2010. Since posting this in 2010, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped small 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 fresh chorizo sausages 1/2 cup queso fresco or feta cheese, crumbled 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro Salt and fresh ground black pepper 2On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry dough so that it is 1/8-inch thick. Using a 2 3/4-inch round cutter, cut out 24 rounds. 3Fit the rounds into a 24-cup nonstick mini muffin tin. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, place it in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes. 4Prick the bottom of each tart shell with a fork. Fill each mini tart with dry beans, dry rice, dry lentils or pie weights then bake until lightly browned and set, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the tarts from the muffin pan and cool on a cooling rack. 2Transfer peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so they steam. After 15 minutes peel away the blistered skin from each pepper then remove the stems. Scrape away all of the seeds and membrane inside the peppers. Chop the peppers into small pieces ready for filling. 2Remove the sausages from their casings and add to the pan, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. When the sausage is browned and cooked through, add the roasted bell peppers, half of the cheese and the cilantro, cook for one more minute.
