Thursday, March 15, 2007

Spinach-Pesto Quiche

There was a sale on eggs and I suddenly had the flavor of fluffy eggs, bacon and basil with a light, buttery pastry in my mouth.

QUICHE!!

I have only made quiche once; and although it wasn't terrible, it wasn't the best.
But this time, it was AWESOME!!!

The Pastry
Start with the pastry. It is very important that the butter be cold and that you do not over mix. The thing that makes the pastry flaky is the tiny bits of un-mixed butter melting and expanding, leaving air pockets.
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 stick COLD butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tbs ICE COLD water
Mix the salt and flour well. Cut the butter into the flour until just crumbly. Whisk the egg yolk and water and mix lightly into the flour mix. DO NOT OVER-MIX! Just mix it until everything is incorporated. Some recipes will have you roll it out at this point, but then you risk over-working the dough. I just pushed it into the bottom of the pan in which I was baking the quiche until it was evenly distributed across the bottom and sides.

Bake it slightly at 425 degrees before putting in the filling.

The Filling
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups light cream (the only cream that I had was half-and-half singles - the kind that you use for coffee. 48 of them equals 2 cups :)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup cheese (usually, you would use Swiss - for this I used my four Italian cheese mix)
  • 2-3 tablespoons minced sweet onion
  • 1-2 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 cup chopped, raw spinach (I probably used more than this)
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil (and I probably used more than this too)
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 1/4-1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
Saute the onion, garlic and pine nuts. Whip the eggs and cream. Mix in all other ingredients, as well as the sauted ingredients. Pour into the lightly browned pastry crust and bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 and bake for another 30 - 45 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

This was even great as left overs!

6 comments:

Sandy said...

Yummy!

Sylvana said...

Sandy, and it was!!
This is my own recipe. I used a spinach quiche recipe from my Fannie Farmer cookbook as a guideline. I just knew that pesto would make a really good quiche.

sonia a. mascaro said...

Hi Sylvana, I am glad to hear about you! Thank you for your visit and nice comment!

This Spinach-Pesto Quiche looks delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Sylvana said...

Sonia, I always enjoy your pictures and reports on Brazil.

If you try any of my recipes, let me know what you think!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know that this recipe has become my go-to quiche. I LOVE it! It is also delicious if you add some artichoke and feta. Thanks for sharing!

Sylvana said...

Thanks for letting me know that you liked it. It has been a while since I have made this myself. I should probably get it back in rotation :)