This quiche from Share is one of Theo Michael's ultimate summertime foods. You can bake the pastry base in a cake pan with high sides so that once it’s cooked it has a ‘crown’ around the crust. Try this delicious combination of salty sharp feta, earthy spinach and punchy oven-roasted tomatoes.
You'll need:
125 g mixed baby tomatoes
180 g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry plain flour, for dusting
4 eggs, plus 1 egg for egg wash
90 g smoked bacon lardons
100 g fresh baby spinach leaves
125 ml double cream
125 ml full-fat milk
70 g grated mature Cheddar
a generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
100 g feta
salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil, for shallow-frying
a 23-cm/9-inch round cake pan, buttered
Serves 6
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas 6).
2. Halve the tomatoes and place them on a baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and cook in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until they have softened, then turn the oven down to 180°C (Gas 4).
3. Roll out the pastry on a flour-dusted surface until 3 mm thick and use to line the prepared cake pan. Trim off the excess pastry at the very top of the cake pan. Prick all over the base with a fork and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, brush the pastry with egg wash and return to the oven to bake for a further 6 minutes.
4. While the pastry case is cooking, you can make the filling. Put the bacon lardons in a frying pan/skillet with a little olive oil and fry until crispy. Pour away the excess oil, turn off the heat and drop the spinach into the pan to wilt in the residual heat.
5. Put the eggs, cream and milk in a bowl and beat together. Stir in the Cheddar cheese, roasted tomatoes, browned lardons and wilted spinach and season generously with salt, pepper and the nutmeg, to taste.
6. Pour the mixture into the blind-baked pastry case, it should only fill it halfway up, crumble the feta in chunks over the top and then bake in the still-hot oven for 25–30 minutes, or until it has the slightest wobble. Leave to cool in the cake pan before removing to serve on your board.
This recipe is from Share by Theo Michaels. To get more great blog posts like this one - direct to your inbox – be sure to sign up to our mailing list here.