RECIPE: All-butter puff pastry makes this weeknight tart sing

Frozen, all-butter puff pastry is the ultimate luxury shortcut ingredient. Sure, the good stuff is expensive, but it can do what few other shortcuts can: make a quick, thrown-together dinner seem like it’s restaurant-quality. You can put just about anything on or in puff pastry, bake it in a hot oven, and you’ll be happy.

This time of year, I like to use just-coming-into-season cherry tomatoes as a base for a briny, umami-rich tart inspired by puttanesca sauce. To the tomatoes, I add pitted Kalamata olives, a tin of drained and chopped anchovies, and a handful of freshly grated Parmesan. (If I weren’t making a five-ingredient recipe, I’d also add capers, garlic, and red pepper flakes.) This potent melange gets scattered on the thawed pastry and baked in a hot oven. Leaving the tomatoes whole helps to prevent the sauce from sogging out the crust before it browns and crisps. They’ll burst when the tart is close to finished, forming a chunky, rustic, saucy topping for the pastry.

The rich, buttery pastry complements the bright, punchy flavors of the toppings for a flavor-packed but still balanced dish. And as long as you keep the underlying current of brininess intact, you can easily make this tart vegetarian-friendly. Simply swap in a tablespoon of capers for the tinned fish for a similar effect.