Ingredients

• 8 ounces pastry dough (short or puff or the recipe given in the intro, you might need more or less)
• 4 ounces cream cheese (125 g)
• 1 pinch salt (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons green onions, finely chopped (spring onions)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper, finely chopped (no seeds or ribs)
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh cream
• 1 egg
• 32 plum tomatoes, small (see photo, amount is approx.)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 420 deg F/210 deg C (to start with).

2. Line a smallish oven dish with pastry, rolled out thinly. I used a rectangular dish. If you prefer, beat an extra egg and paint the pastry with egg, for a golden colour after baking.Keep pastry cold at all times, so put into fridge while you continue.

3. In a bowl, mix together everything except the small tomatoes. My cream cheese was very firm and cold still, so I used an electric beater for quite a while to get the mixture to be smooth.

4. Although fresh basil is plentiful, I felt that dried basil stood up better to oven heat than fresh basil.

5. Take the pastry-lined dish from fridge, and spoon in the cream cheese mixture.

6. Top neatly with the small tomatoes, and sprinkle over the 1/2 teaspoon sugar.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 - 45 minutes, until some tomatoes start colouring, then wrinkle, and the cream cheese base puffs up. It will sink again as it cools.

8. Lovely side dish with fried chicken pieces.