Quiche with spinach and feta. © Ryan Schierling |
Believe it or not, back in the day this was one of my preferred quick, late-morning meals with a nice hot latte. There was a delightful neighborhood coffee shop that sold this delicious pie by the slice. It was a thick, custardy piece with the bright tang of feta and a generous amount of chopped spinach perfectly suspended throughout. It was just the right thing to get me through a busy afternoon on those days when I needed a little bit of protein, instead of something starchy or sweet.
It's no easy thing to find a quiche that is truly a custard; delicate and flavorful without being heavy and essentially a baked-egg casserole, as they are so often prepared. Many also suffer from the addition of abundant oily cheese, or vacuous vegetables that are neither enhanced by or serve to elevate such creamy custard. Some "quiches" are unabashedly filling-centric, where the "custard" is reduced in proportion to merely an egg-based binder instead of shining as the real star.
It took a bit of research to find a recipe offering guidelines for the right proportions of egg and cream and milk to meet my criteria. But, fortunately for my cravings, this quiche base magnificently hits the mark. While it may seem that anything containing eggs and milk baked inside a pie shell qualifies as a quiche in the wide world of recipes online, we all know that the French are a little more particular about these things. Fact is, I almost feel bad that my favorite variety is so very Florentine. Or maybe even Greek – with the feta included, it's a little like spanakopita meets classic French cuisine – but, in the best possible way.