Dear phyllo dough, I want a divorce.

Dear phyllo dough,

We're fighting. I think it's best we stay away from one another for a while. You stay in the freezer section, I'll make dishes without you for a while, and maybe, mayyybbbee one of these days we can try this again. But for now, I'm mad at you.

Love,
KT
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Ya know ... some food experiments turn out well, some ... you just have to chalk up to a failed operation.

This is the tale of my vegetable tart with phyllo dough. It was a mild night in early June. I had a variety of ingredients already that needed to be used, the concept seemed brilliant, the meal sounded delicious and healthy, and all it would take would be a bit of phyllo dough.

I chopped up all of the artichoke hearts and tomatoes and put them in a bowl. I marinated the veggies for an extra kick in a lemony mustard vinaigrette. It tasted wonderful. While those flavors married, I got out my baking dish and pulled this phyllo dough out of the freezer. How hard could this be, right?

Wrong. So very, very wrong.

Somehow, I forgot that I wasn't working with puff pastry or something manageable, instead very thin, easily teared pieces of flakiness. I started laying this out over the pan, leaving ample over the edges to wrap up over the filling, brushing with oil.

Then, I got lazy ... stopped doing this sheet by miserable sheet, and started lumping 2-3 sheets together. Hell, I've got places to be, what can I say. And regardless, it was just a few bits of flakiness, right?

Wrong, again.

I filled with the drained tomatoes and artichoke hearts, crumbled feta cheese over it, squeezed some extra lemon over, wrapped this all up, brushed with oil (before it started to tear ... again) and popped in the oven.

This, was the outcome ...



Pretty enough, right? That's what I thought. Now if only the dough had any taste, but it was like eating thinner, crispier construction paper.

So Mr. Phyllo Dough, we're not friends right now. I think it's best we keep our distance for the time being. I'll call you when I'm ready for you again.

Have suggestions for how I can reacquaint myself with this frozen pastry nemesis? I'd love to hear. Otherwise, I'll stick to store bought tart shells and frozen spanakopita. ;)