Spinach and Bacon Quiche - French Fridays with Dorie

Pie is not my thing.  And a quiche is just a savory pie with a French name.  But I had to make something for my book club, so I decided I’d double the recipe and make two quiches for the hungry readers.  But I forgot I didn’t have two tart pans.  I also forgot that I broke my trusty Pyrex pie pan (I had only one) a few weeks ago and hadn’t replaced it yet.  Hint:  Do not set a hot glass pie pan on a granite countertop.  I do have a lovely Emile Henry deep dish pie pan—it was way too deep for this shallow quiche, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.

I had no trouble making the filling, which was easy as you-know-what.  Because when I say that pie is not my thing, I really mean that crust is not my thing.  Every now and then I get a crust that’s flaky and delicious.  But mostly not.  But the filling was fun:  lightly cook the spinach, squeeze the bejesus out of it, and add it to sautéed onion and garlic.  (You’re supposed to chop the spinach, too, but I forgot to do that).

 

This mixture, plus the lovely, aromatic bacon, is set in the bottom of a pre-baked pie shell.  I didn’t take pictures of the pie crust making process, mostly because I was too absorbed in making the dough to think about taking pictures.  Pour cream and eggs over the vegetable/spinach  mixture, top with grated Parmesan, and it’s ready to go in the oven. 

 

You can see that there’s too much crust showing on the Emile Henry pan.  And the tart pan crust doesn’t look slickly professional.  It looks like it should come with a tag that says that the imperfections you see are a sign that this was made by hand. 

I got so busy getting dinner ready that I forgot to take pictures of the finished quiches.  (I realize that I forgot a lot of things, but in my defense, I’d like to say that I just got back from a two-week vacation in France and was still on French time.  You try making a quiche at 3:00 a.m. (body time) and see how successful you are). 

The book club loved the quiche filling, but most people left bits of crust on their plates.  If the pie crust is good, people eat it all.  If it’s not so good, it’s left on the plate.  But here’s a shot of one forlorn piece left in the Emile Henry pan.  I used Dorie’s all-purpose tart crust recipe on p. 498.  Since it’s Dorie’s go-to recipe, I assume it works for her.  I loved the quiche filling—it was just about perfect.  But next time, I’ll try another tart dough in my never-ending quest for the crust that gets eaten.  I guess I’d also better buy another pie pan.