Ricotta Quiche Recipe with Spinach and Pickled Onion

Name: Ricotta Quiche Recipe with Spinach and Pickled Onion
Prep time: 1 h 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 2 h
Cuisine: French cuisine
Ingredients: Wheat flour 200 g; Butter 100 g; Ricotta 250 g; Onion 1; Spinach 1 bunch; Egg 3; Hard cheese 50 g; Milk 100 ml; Tomato 1; Salt, Mediterranean herbs, hot pepper, dried chives, wine vinegar to taste

Try making a quiche, a wonderful savory pie on shortcrust pastry with endless filling options. Although the pastry is rich, the pie can stand in for bread at lunch, or make a great breakfast prepared the day before that needs no reheating. Just pour a glass of tomato juice and cut yourself a generous slice.

Quiche is considered a dish of French cuisine, though it's found all over the world. I read somewhere that it came into French cooking from Lorraine, where it's called quiche Lorraine, the Lorraine pie. The name probably comes from the Frankish Kuche, meaning cake. The original pie was filled with smoked bacon and topped with a custard of Gruyère, milk and eggs. Today there are many fillings: vegetables, onions, fish and meat, all kinds of cheese.

The popularity of this pastry means that in modern cooking the pie can also be sweet, with cream, berries and fruit. By and large, it is similar to a tart, a sweet or savory pie on shortcrust pastry. Like a tart, a quiche is baked in a shallow pan with a fluted edge and filled with an egg mixture, and the small tarts are called tartlets. The baking process is no different from making a pizza.

The French pie is a relative of the clafoutis dessert. If you think about it, in all such dishes the difference lies mostly in the filling. The fluted pan, the shortcrust pastry and the egg custard are essentially the same, or very close. Historians write that the Germans, who first made the Lorraine pie, used leftover dough and whatever came to hand. They covered the filling with an egg mixture and baked it, and got something like a rustic pie with an omelet.

The French refined the quiche, giving it a lighter shortcrust and adding cheese to the custard. The variety of fillings grew a lot too. They say this pastry is acceptable even for a healthy diet.

Despite being rich, the pie contains plenty of useful vitamins and minerals. With a nearly identical shortcrust base, the filling is a field for imagination and experiments. I once tried a pie filled with ground meat fried with onion, with pickled onion and cucumbers added, all baked under an egg and cheese custard.

More with cheese

Quiche LorraineClassic quiche Lorraine: tender shortcrust pastry, smoked pork belly, Gruyère and a creamy egg custard baked until just set. Simple step-by-step recipe.

Cheese Khachapuri with Matsoni DoughEasy khachapuri recipe: soft matsoni dough filled with young cheese, egg and butter, pan-fried until golden and buttered. Step-by-step photos.

Strapatsada – Greek Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and FetaGreek strapatsada: tomatoes stewed with onion and pepper, lightly beaten eggs stirred in, served with feta, herbs and toast. A quick step-by-step recipe.

Mish-mash – Bulgarian scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers and cheeseBulgarian mish-mash: lightly scrambled eggs with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, sirene cheese and savory. A simple, hearty breakfast, step by step with photos.

Potato Pancakes with RicottaItalian potato pancakes with ricotta, spinach and Parmesan (frittelle di patate e ricotta): crispy, golden and ready in an hour. Step-by-step photos.

Ingredients

6 servings

Wheat flour 200 g
Butter 100 g
Ricotta 250 g
Onion 1
Spinach 1 bunch
Egg 3
Hard cheese 50 g
Milk 100 ml
Tomato 1
Salt, Mediterranean herbs, hot pepper, dried chives, wine vinegar to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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We made a quiche filled with soft young cheese with spinach and onion pickled in wine vinegar. The custard is made of eggs with milk and a not-too-hard cheese such as Parmesan or Grana Padano. The crumbly shortcrust is the base of the pie. It holds its shape well and crumbles only moderately. For the cheese we used ricotta, so the filling looks like a cheese pizza topping.
Preparing the shortcrust pastry
For good shortcrust you need top-grade wheat flour. We used a 28 cm pan with a fluted edge and a removable bottom, and a pie this size is just right for lunch. So, 200 g of wheat flour, which must be sifted. Take one chicken egg and the butter out of the fridge ahead of time so they come to room temperature.
Tip the sifted flour into a large bowl, add 1-2 pinches of fine salt, and stir. Make a well in the flour. Separate the egg yolk from the white and add the yolk to the flour. The white can be discarded or used in the egg custard, as you like. Shave the softened butter into pieces with a knife and add it to the flour.
Using a fork, mix the flour with the butter, mashing the pieces. Gradually the fat and flour will combine. Then, with dry hands only, knead the mixture until it is uniform. You can do this right in the bowl or tip the mixture out onto the table, whichever is convenient. If you press the dough together easily with your hands, it will quickly stop crumbling and become smooth.
Shape all the dough into a ball and wrap it in cling film. Put the dough in the fridge for 1 hour to rest. By the way, people often write that a little water can be added to shortcrust, but I don't know how acceptable that is. Meanwhile, you can make the ricotta filling and the egg and cheese custard.
Preparing the filling and custard
Most of the filling ingredients have a neutral flavor, so we added pickled onion to the quiche. Peel the onion ahead of time and cut it into thin strips. Put the onion in a small bowl or cup and cover with grape vinegar, preferably white so that it doesn't color the onion and filling. Onion pickles quickly, or alternatively you can pour boiling water over the onion with the vinegar and rinse it after 5 mins. You can also use pickled sweet pepper or other vegetables.
Put the ricotta in a small bowl. If the cheese is firm, you can add 1 tbsp of sour milk or sour cream. Finely chop the spinach leaves, without stalks, with a knife and add them to the cheese. Salt the cheese, add Mediterranean herbs to taste and a little coarsely ground hot pepper. Mash and mix the ricotta with the additions thoroughly until you get a soft, uniform paste, similar in consistency to a cheese spread made of brynza or feta.
In a separate bowl, mix two eggs. You can add the leftover white from the dough. Add 1 tsp of dried chives. Finely grate the hard cheese, Parmesan, Grana Padano or similar, and mix it with the eggs. Add a third of a cup of milk. Stir the custard thoroughly. If the mixture turns out too thick, you can add more milk, but no more than half a cup in total. The custard should be a little thicker than the mixture for crème brûlée.
Assembling the pie
A round pan with a fluted edge needs no extra greasing. There is plenty of butter in the shortcrust. But if you think it necessary, grease the bottom and sides of the pan with 1 tsp of butter or olive oil. Take the dough out of the fridge and remove the film. Spread the dough with your fingers over the bottom of the pan and up the sides to a height of about 2.5-3 cm. The dough will crumble, but it holds its shape well if you press it down and leave it alone. Any cracks and tears can be patched with dough and pressed together.
Spread the prepared ricotta and spinach filling over the dough with a spoon, from side to side without gaps. The filling should not reach the very top of the fluted edge, only the bottom. At first glance there may seem to be too little filling. In fact, the quiche will rise quite a lot, and the filling with the custard will be level with the edge or even a little higher.
Rinse the pickled onion free of any leftover vinegar, separate it into strips and spread it evenly over the ricotta filling. Press the filling down a little so the onion strips don't stick out. By the way, if you like, you can add some heat or finely chopped garlic to the pie, which many people enjoy.
Pour the egg and cheese custard over the ricotta and onion filling. It's best to do this with a tablespoon, spreading the mixture evenly over the ricotta, especially so the custard along the shortcrust edge is even and uniform. Cut the tomato into thin slices and lay them over the custard, pressing them in lightly. The ricotta quiche is ready to bake.
Baking the pie
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the pan with the pie into the well-heated oven. Shortcrust with a cheese filling bakes for about 30 mins. After that, go by the firmness of the filling and the doneness of the pastry. Ideally, the shortcrust should start to change color from pale to deep golden. Don't lift the pastry, as you would when baking a pizza. The edge of the pastry next to the fluted rim of the pan is a good indicator. The egg custard will also begin to set. Usually the longest you can extend the baking is 15 mins.
How to serve
Take the pan with the finished pie out of the oven and set it on a wooden board. Be careful, it's very hot. The pie must cool, so don't try to take it out of the pan, as it may crumble. If the pan has a removable bottom, you can easily separate the fluted rim from the base, and then the baked pie slides easily onto a large plate or board.
With a sharp knife, carefully cut the pie into 6 pieces, the way a pizza is usually cut. So that the filling isn't squashed and the shortcrust doesn't crumble, hold the knife vertically and cut through the pie with small movements, scoring the edge separately with the knife held horizontally.
Arrange the pieces of pie on small plates or serve them straight from the platter, whichever you like. The pie can be served with vegetable or tomato juice for lunch or breakfast. It goes nicely with a cold sauce of yogurt or sour milk. At dinner you can pour yourself a glass of wine.