Perdonami... Time to Confess Something...

in

Confession. I’ve been holding out and haven’t really shared my favorite lunch hack with you yet…

Savory tarts! Learn the incredibly basic recipe for making a tart custard, grab yourself a frozen pie crust and fill it with whatever vegetables are in season and you’ve got lunch for a whole week! And once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll be cranking these bad boys out in less than an hour start to finish, including baking time!

I switch it up between preparing tarts that are based in Italian and French technique. Both are very simple. The difference is that Italians use more eggs. The French use more cream and milk. We’ll get to the French technique in a later post, but this first one happens to be Italian with a recipe from Phaidon’s upcoming Italian Cooking School: Pizza.

Full disclosure I work for the publisher but that doesn’t change the fact that I REALLY like this cookbook. I would have never thought to start making tarts had this recipe not caught my eye as particularly simple. And the book’s structure (it teaches you basic techniques first and then encourages you to variate pretty much endlessly!) truly has inspired me to keep experimenting with tarts.

Using a frozen pie crust is DEFINITELY not authentically Italian, but let’s be real… who has time to make pastry on a weeknight! I don’t care how basic that recipe is. It takes me approximately 3 seconds to pull my pie crust out of the freezer. I always keep one in there now!

Endless possibilities I tell you!

 “Solo l'inizio” Zucchini, Ham and Ricotta Tart

Makes 6 good size servings

- 1 frozen pie crust

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- 1 small onion, finely chopped

- 3 zucchini, sliced into thin rounds

- 3 whole eggs

- 1 egg yolk

- ½ cup ricotta cheese

- 7 oz ham, chopped

- 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

- salt

- pepper

Preheat the oven to 375˚F and line a baking sheet with some aluminum foil.

Get out a decent sized skillet or frying pan and heat the olive oil in it over medium heat. Add the onion and cook it for about 5 minutes, then add the zucchini, cover the pan and let everything cook for 5-10 minutes. The zucchini should end up being slightly translucent and lightly browned. When you get to that point, take off the lid and turn up the heat a bit and cook for a few more minutes until the liquid in the pan has evaporated. When done, transfer the onions and zucchini to a plate and let them cool so that you can handle them when you assemble the tart.

While you wait for that to cool, get out a bowl and whisk together the three whole eggs and one egg yolk. Add the ricotta and mix it well. Then add the ham and Parmesan. Stir it and season it with some salt and pepper.

Now assemble the tart and pretend to be Martha Stewart (or Ina or Giada… whoever your domestic doyenne of choice happens to be…). Make it as pretty as possible! Pour the cheese filling into your frozen pie crust, which should just about fill the crust. Then arrange the zucchini and onions in a single layer on top of that. Do that whole concentric circle thing. You’ll be surprised by how easily you can make this look impressively beautiful.

Put the tart on your aluminum lined baking sheet (catches any spillage of the filling and reduced clean up) and bake it in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it isn’t getting too brown. The filling should be fairly firm when it’s done, although it will remain a bit jiggly until it cools.

Let it stand and cool to prevent it from being a mess when you serve it. I personally like to let tarts cool completely to room temperature before I cut them. They make nicer slices that way.

Enjoy all week and start thinking about what other ingredients you can apply your new favorite technique to!    ​