Courgette, Rosemary and Goats Cheese Quiche

One of the things I love about quiche is you can put whatever you fancy in it as a filling. For example, my previous quiche recipe involved beetroot and feta, but I mixed things up a bit here by using courgettes, goats cheese, and rosemary. This recipe comes from one of my many generic 'vegetarian kitchen' cookbooks and is a lovely balance of flavours. As ever, if you don't want to make the pastry, just use packaged stuff. 

For some reason I see quiche as very much a spring/summer dish, so this is probably the last quiche I'll feature on the blog for a while, as my attention turns to soup in the coming months.

For the pastry:
250g plain flour
125 g cold butter/cooking margarine
75 ml milk

For the filling:

1-2 courgettes (depending on size)
50g goats cheese
80g mature cheddar cheese
250 ml milk
3 eggs
dried rosemary
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Skip step 2 if using store bought pastry. Otherwise, to make the pastry:

2. Cut cold butter into cubes, add to flour and rub in until the texture is like breadcrumbs. Add milk gradually, and stir through, before using your hands to smooth the mixture, and roll into a ball. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. Remove pastry from the fridge, and roll out on a floured surface to the desired size. Transfer to a greased flan/pie disk, and poke with a fork. To give you an idea of size, I did this for my large pie dish which is quite shallow and 27cms in diameter.

 

3. Bake blind in the oven for 20 minutes or so. If you have them, the result will be better if you use baking beans to 'weigh' the pastry down as you cook it. I have never gotten around to buying baking beans, however, and my pastry always turns out fine (although it does rise much a bit in places).

4. Meanwhile, chop courgettes and fry with salt and pepper until browned.

 5. Beat the eggs, add in the milk and three quarters of the cheese. Save some of the cheese for the topping.

6. Once the pastry has been baked blind for 20 minutes or so, remove from oven and add the filling. Start by layering the courgette and goats cheese, and sprinkling over the rosemary. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Next, add the egg/milk/cheese mixture. Top with the remaining cheese, a further sprinkle of rosemary, and a good helping of pepper.

 8. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until the pastry is cooked through.