I recently had a quiche revelation. Up until this point in my life, the quiches I had been consuming were primarily made in a shallow pie dish or tart pan. In fact, quiche is probably not the word you would want to use for these creations of mine. Egg pie perhaps. Custard tart maybe. Delicious, yes, but not nearly enough volume for the filling. And with all the delicious things you can put into a quiche, maximum filling space is of the utmost importance. At least to me. Something needed to be done. Namely, I needed to ditch the pie plate, and make a real, actual, no-holds-barred quiche. I’m talking the kind of quiche with a super tall crust, and more delicious custardy filling than you know what to do with. Yeah. That’s a quiche.

All I can say here is, mission accomplished. This eggy masterpiece puts my old, shallow “quiches” of yore to shame. The amount of filling it can hold is impressive, to say the least. Plenty of room for delicious add-ins, like bitter greens, bacon, creamy feta, and some high quality parm. Not to mention, a quiche like this makes for one satisfying meal. Sure, it takes some time to make, but the results are totally worth it. And since it’s best served at room temp, you can bake it at your leisure, pop it in the fridge, and serve it whenever. Breakfast, lunch, dinner - it’s really perfect for any meal. We packed ours up to the capitol square for some al fresco dining during last week’s Concerts on the Square, and it made for some killer picnic fare. But trust me, no matter how you eat it, it will be awesome. A good quiche always is.

As a side note, this week (July 9th, to be exact) marks the 1 year anniversary of Wisconsin from Scratch’s first ever blog post! Thanks to all of our awesome readers, it’s been one fantastic (not to mention delicious) year! Here’s to many more!

Bitter Greens and Bacon Quiche with Feta and Parmesan

makes 1 huge quiche (10-12 slices)

Yes, you should most definitely make your own crust for this. It’s easier than you think. Some helpful tips here.

1 9-inch pie crust, pre-baked in a 2 inch high cake or springform pan (recipe follows)
4-5 slices bacon, chopped crosswise into small pieces
3 cups bitter greens (i.e. mustard, kale, arugula, chard), roughly chopped
1 Tbsp lemon juice
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ crumbled feta cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese (I used Sartori’s SarVecchio Parmesan)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.Cook bacon pieces in a pan over medium heat until they begin to crisp up. Add the greens, and lemon juice, and cook until greens are just wilted, about 3-4 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, salt, and pepper. Stir in the feta and half of the parmesan cheese.

4. Spread half of the greens mixture evenly in the bottom of your pre-baked crust. Pour half of the egg mixture over top, followed by another layer of greens, and the rest of the egg mixture. Top with remaining ½ cup parmesan.

5. Place pan on a baking sheet and bake quiche at 325 degrees until top is golden brown, and filling is just set, but still jiggles slightly, about 90 minutes.

6. Cool quiche completely, slice, and serve.

Basic Pie Dough

Makes 1 9-inch crust.

1 ¼ cups flour
1 stick of butter
1 oz of water
a pinch of salt

1. Measure the flour into a large bowl.

2. Being careful to handle the butter as little as possible (we need to keep it cold, and body heat will warm it up), cut the butter into small pieces, then add to the flour.

3. Using your hands, work the butter into the flour until the pieces are small (about the size of a pea) and the mixture has a grainy texture.

4. Add the salt and the water (very cold) a little bit at a time, mixing until the dough is all incorporated into a ball. If 1 oz of water doesn’t seem to be enough, you can add a bit more, but add it a little bit at a time, and use the least amount of water possible to hold the dough together.

5. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 15-20 minutes before working with it further.

6. Grease a 9-inch springform pan or cake pan with 2 inch high sides and preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Once the dough has been chilled, roll it out and shape it into your greased pan, making sure crust reaches all the way up the sides of the pan (tall crust = lots of room for filling).

7. For blind baking (baking just the crust with no filling), you will need to weight down the crust so it doesn’t bubble and form air pockets while it’s baking. You can buy pie weights, but I just cover the crust with Al foil and throw in some dry beans or rice. Once the pie has baked at 325 for about 20 min, you can remove the foil and beans (or what have you) and continue to bake for about another 15 minutes to get a good brown on the crust.

8. Remove the crust from the oven, cool and fill according to recipe instructions.