Quichetátatouille: Dishing up something new!

If you've read this title, you already know I've gone a little crazy with throwing things together. My kitchen was incompletely incomplete it seemed. I had the ingredients for a partial quiche, frittata, and ratatouille. The key ingredients I was missing were cheese and onion. So in an attempt to make up for a serious lack of some of the most important food staples, I upped the presence of veggies and threw in a crust. I actually found it quite delightful, and because I made an entire baking pan full of Quichetátatouille, I was thankful it turned out well because it was lunch and dinner for a few of days out.

I honestly don't know how I could ever run out of onions because I use them in every recipe (that's probably the reason right there). However, I was not disappointed in the outcome. I feel like the flavors balanced just fine, and onion usually acts as a balancing agent in most recipes. I upped the garlic for depth, plus you can never have too much garlic, and the farm fresh eggs with orange yolks that I threw in took care of the richness that cheese would usually have. Because of the warm mixture of traditional ratatouille veggies, the eggs and wealth of ingredients of a frittata, and the crust of a quiche, here is my Quichetátatouille. All in all, it was a win. So, here is my procedure.

Quichetátatouille

1 Pie crust, rolled out into a square baking dish

Olive oil

4 Cloves of garlic

1 Zucchini

2 Celery stalks

2 Carrots

4 Stewing tomatoes

2 Bell peppers

Salt

Black Pepper

Herbs de Provence

Heat the oven to 350º. The first step is to prepare the pie crust. Roll it out into a rectangular baking dish, big enough to fit all your ingredients. I baked it in the oven for about 8 minutes before I added the ingredients, you can prepare this as you would prepare a quiche crust, and that is weighted with dry beans or with a slightly smaller baking pan placed on top of the rolled out crust. This will prevent the crust from bubbling up in the center, and it will cook evenly.

I cut my ingredients into whatever shapes I thought would look cool layered in a baking pan, but you can just go for slicing or cubing at about an inch measurement. The only thing I would strictly recommend is slicing the tomatoes in half moons, so for every whole slice of a tomato, just cut that in half and you have your top layer. The tomatoes on the top really worked well in the oven, as they were still moist, but had that taste of oven-roasted happiness.

For the eggs, I chose to use 5, but you can increase and decrease at your discretion, it just depends on how fluffy you want this Quichetátatouille. Beat those eggs to oblivion with a whisk to ensure maximum fluffiness. You can also add heavy cream or milk at this point, as well as the seasonings to taste.

Distribute the veggies as you see fit inside the warm pie crust. I like to layer, as I would a ratatouille, but you can just throw them in there, as long as they are mixed up, because they'll be swimming in a sea of golden eggs in a minute. When the vegetables are all settled, distribute the egg mixture (with seasonings) evenly. Make sure that the seasonings haven't all settled at the bottom, so give it a good whisk before pouring it out. Alternatively, you can season each individual layer that you make, to ensure that all of your Quichetátatouille is seasoned. Now you are ready to pop it in the oven. It took about a half hour to get it to the softness and bubbly happiness I was aiming for. I would gauge the time by the doneness of the crust, if it is starting to get dangerously browned, it is probably time to take it out of the oven.

This dish is great with a side of cheese and crackers. I actually used it with a side of spreadable cheese, crackers, and my homemade tomato jam. Delicious! Then, I continued to heat it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a few consecutive days. It kept very well in the fridge! On top of all that, this meal is rather healthy considering that it lacks the weight of butter and cheese.

In addition to simple sides for a light meal like crackers, you can make it a side for a more complete meal. I think it would be wonderful aside a salmon fillet, tilapia with beurre blanc, roasted chicken, or warm brie and grapes MmmMmm! When in doubt, it does stand well on its own. Enjoy (for many days to come)!