With more time on my hands than usual, I’ve been going through my site, cleaning things up and reacquainting myself with some summer recipes that for some reason or another I stopped making but need to start turning to again (more on that later) when I noticed a glaring omission: Unwritten Recipes is quiche-less!! Wha-a-t?!! Oh, sure, there are crustless quiches and frittatas up the wazoo and even a few egg bakes, but nary a recipe for the traditional, crusted, real-men-don’t eat kind!! This culinary gaffe could not be allowed to continue. I was losing sleep over it! So today—Asparagus and Potato Quiche. Finally!!

After putting this together, I think I now know the reason I haven’t shared a classic quiche recipe yet—they’re a little time consuming. Totally delicious and worth it if you have the time (which many of us seem to now) but be forewarned, that there are a bunch of steps, including chilling time for the dough, which makes this more of a weekend project and not the sort of dish to start late in the afternoon for dinner that night.

That said, this asparagus and potato version, with its creamy filling and golden, flaky crust is marvelous. Truly!

And with asparagus in season, the time to make this is now! Here’s how:

After you’ve prepared the dough, first shaping it into a thickish disk

And then rolling it out to line your tart pan,

You do a little blind bake of the crust so that the dough gets partially cooked before you add in the filling. This helps to keep it from getting soggy.

Once that’s done, you prepare the veggies, first sautéing a bunch of scallions and eventually adding the potatoes, asparagus and garlic to the mix.

After that it’s a breeze. You simply whisk together a sour cream/egg mixture that gets enhanced with a little Dijon mustard and spices and layer everything together, adding in a generous amount of shredded cheese.

The quiche bakes up fluffy and golden brown and the asparagus and potatoes are tender, not mushy. And that crust—it’s buttery, flaky, extra pretty ‘cause it’s baked in a fluted tart pan. YUM!!

Whether you serve this for breakfast, brunch, lunch or as a light dinner, I guarantee you’re going to love every creamy, cheesy, eggy, veggie, crusty bite!

Whew! Now, maybe I can get a good night’s sleep again!

Asparagus and Potato Quiche

Makes one 9 or 10-inch tart

It really helps to use a food processor to put the pie crust together but you can do it by hand using a pastry blender.

Prep Time for crust: 15 minutes, plus a few hours of chilling; Bake Time for crust: about 30 minutes, plus chilling time after dough has been rolled out; Prep Time for filling: 30 minutes; Bake Time for Quiche: 50 minutes to an hour

Ingredients

For the Crust*

1 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and chilled
⅓ cup ice cold water

For the Filling

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
½ pound small Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into quarters
¼ cup water or chicken broth
1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup sour cream
1 ½ tablespoons unbleached, all-purpose flour
⅔ cup milk (I used whole but you could really use any kind), the lower the percentage, the less creamier it will be though)
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 ½ cups shredded Swiss cheese (you can sub in any cheese you like)

The Recipe

1. To make the crust: Place the flour, cornstarch and salt in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse the mixture a few times to mix. Scatter the butter over the top. Pulse the machine 8 to 10 times until you see pea-sized pieces of butter.

2. Pulse the machine as you slowly add the water through the feed tube. Stop pulsing when the mixture is fairly crumbly—you don’t want it to be clumpy yet. Place one long piece of plastic wrap horizontally on the counter and place another on top vertically so the two are criss-crossing. Dump the dough into the center and grab the edges of the plastic wrap bringing the pieces into the center to form the dough into a 1-inch thick disk. Doing it this way prevents the heat from your hands warming the butter in the dough which makes the dough sticky and creates a tougher dough with less flakiness. Use a fresh piece of plastic to wrap the dish and chill for about 2 hours before rolling it out. You could also leave this for up to one day, chilled, before rolling out.

3. Lightly flour a board or counter and roll the dough into a 13+ inch circle and transfer to a 9 or 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom (if you don’t have one of those, you can use a deep-dish pie plate instead) Carefully press into the bottom and sides and roll over any overhanging dough, pressing it into the fluted sides to make them a little more stable. Place the dough into the freezer for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prick the chilled crust all over with a fork and line the shell with a large piece of aluminum foil, pressing it into the creases so it fits smoothly. Add a thick layer of pie weights or dried beans so that they reach the top of the crust. Place the pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the baking sheet and carefully remove the foil with beans. Return the pan on the sheet to the oven to cook for another 8-10 minutes just to firm up and get a little golden. You don’t want it to get brown—you’ll be cooking this for a long time again with the filling in it. Transfer the pan on the rimmed baking sheet to a wire rack and let cool.

5. To make the filling: Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the scallions, stirring every now and then for a few minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and potatoes and sauté for a minute or so. Add in water or chicken broth and cover. Let cook for 5 minutes. Add in the asparagus and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the asparagus and potatoes are almost fork tender—you don’t want them to be mushy. Uncover the skillet and allow any liquid still left in the pan to cook off. Scrape out the mixture onto a plate and let cool. (You could make this several hours before putting the quiche together and leave it at room temperature so it’s all ready to go).

6. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a large bowl, whisk the sour cream and flour together until smooth. Whisk in the milk. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Then whisk in the mustard and another pinch or two of salt and pepper.

7. Sprinkle about ½ cup of the cheese across the bottom of the crust and top with the cooked veggie mixture, spreading it out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle a cup of the cheese across the top evenly. Give the egg mixture another good whisk or two in case anything has settled and ladle it over the filling. Sprinkle the remaining cheese across the top. Place the baking sheet with the quiche back into the oven and let cook for about 45-1 hour, until golden and puffy. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing to ensure neat slices. Chill any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container and reheat in a low oven.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from The Harvest Baker by Ken Haedrich, I used sour cream and milk instead of the creme fraiche and half and half, cut the fresh dill and subbed in Swiss cheese for the cheddar, but this would really be good with practically any shredded cheese.

*This crust is really terrific but feel free to whatever pie crust dough you like.