Pesto Torte

Recipe was submitted by Diane R, into March’s Food Challenge where the theme is GREEN.   Here is what Diane had to say about the recipe…

(I chose this recipe to submit because I make it for Christmas and my friends and family love it—and I’ve been asked to bring it to a neighborhood St. Patrick’s party again this year.
When I first made it I made it as directed—but when I made it for Christmas this past year I thought I bought sun-dried tomatoes—but they were actually red peppers!—but I used them anyway and it was still great.
And since we have a huge garden every year with an over abundance of basil, I make my own pesto and freeze it, and have always used that instead of a store bought jar. I also canned tomatoes this summer which I diced and added to the torte for an extra ‘fresh’ flavor~~but store bought ones are fine as long as you strain the juice well.   As you can see in the picture, on this one I added the diced tomatoes to the bowl first so that when I turned it out onto a bowl the tomatoes were at the top, and with the red, white and green, it was a very pretty dish to add to our table for the Christmas eve buffet……even tho half of it was eaten by my daughters and a friend even before the company got here!

Ingredients

• 2 8-ounce pkgs. cream cheese
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 small jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 10 ounce jar of pesto
• 1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
• 1/ cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese together till smooth and well blended. Stir in the cheddar cheese.
2. In another small bowl mix together the pesto and the parmesean cheese.
3. Line a 10 to 12 ounce size bowl with plastic wrap. Divide the cream cheese mix into three parts and spoon 1/3 of the cheese into the bowl. Top that layer with 1/3 of the tomatoes.
4. Spread 1/3 of the pesto/cheese mix over top of the tomatoes.
5. Repeat the layers using the remaining mixtures.
6. Fold the plastic over the torte and seal well.
7. Chill overnight till firm.
8. Unmold onto a plate and remove plastic wrap.

Serve with a crusty bread or firm crackers..  You can also divide this and make two smaller tortes using custard-type bowls.