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Quiche Provençale
Quiche provençale is a savory French tart made with zucchini, aubergine, bell peppers and tomato, cooked down until tender, then set in a simple custard of eggs and crème fraîche (or heavy cream), no cheese mixed into the custard. It tastes like ratatouille in custard form with a crisp quiche crust.
Equipment
- 1 9 inch pie with a removable bottom with little holes is handy but not necessary (23 cm) or or 10 inch pie dish (25 cm),
- 1 Pie weights or dried beans or rice, for blind baking
- 1 Parchment paper
Ingredients
Vegetables
- 1 small eggplant (aubergine), about 200g / 7 oz, diced
- ½ red bell pepper (capsicum), diced
- ½ yellow bell pepper (capsicum), diced
- 1 small zucchini (courgette), about 150g / 5 oz, diced, saving a few thin slices for the top
- 3 small tomatoes 2 diced for the filling, 1 thinly sliced for the top
- ½ small onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp herbes de Provence or mixed herbs or equal parts dried thyme, rosemary, oregano
- 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves torn
- ½ tsp salt plus more to taste
- ¼ tsp black pepper plus more to taste
Custard and Pastry
- 1 batch pâte brisée shortcrust pastry for a 9 inch / 23 cm dish, no sugar — or use store-bought pie crust or puff pastry
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup / 240 ml crème fraîche or sour cream, or heavy cream and Greek Yogurt
To finish (optional, pick one)
- 1.5 oz goat cheese 35-50 grams (or feta), crumbled, added after baking
- ½ cup gruyère 50 grams or parmesan, or mozzarella, grated, scattered on top for the last 5 minutes of baking
Instructions
- Blind bake the crust. Roll out your pastry, fit it into the pie dish, trim the edges, and chill it for 15-20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C), prick the base, line with parchment and pie weights, and blind bake 15 minutes. Pull the weights and parchment and bake another 5-8 minutes, until the base looks dry, not damp. Check the base, not just the edges. A dry-looking base is what actually prevents a soggy bottom.
- Salt the eggplant and tomato. Dice the aubergine and two of the tomatoes, spread on paper towels with a little salt, and let them sit 10-15 minutes. This isn’t really extra time, you’re chopping everything else and making the custard while it sits there.
- Dice the remaining veggies. Dice the bell peppers and most of the zucchini (save a little tomato and zucchini to slice thin for the top). Try to make the pieces the same size for even cooking.
- Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil a few minutes
- Add the aubergine on its own and cook it about 4 minutes. It needs a head start, it takes longer than everything else.
- Add the pepper and zucchini, cook until soft.
- Add the tomato last, just a couple of minutes, it’s already drained so it doesn’t need long. Stir in the herbes de Provence, cook another minute or two, take it off the heat, and stir in the basil. The mixture should look fairly dry before it goes in the crust, not wet or glossy. Otherwise your quiche will have a hard time “setting”.
- Fill the pre-baked pie crust. Don’t overfill or the quiche won’t hold together, as there is not enough custard mixture to hold it together.
- Make the custard. Whisk the eggs and crème fraîche together with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Assemble. Pour the custard over the top and use the extra zucchini rounds and tomato slices to decorate the top.
- Bake. 20 minutes at 375°F (190°C), then choose your finish from below.
- Three Ways to Finish It:
- Plain. The simplest version, no cheese at all. Just keep baking after the 20 minutes, another 5-10 minutes, until it’s firm to the touch, no wobble. This is the most traditionally French version, and it lets the vegetables speak for themselves.
- Baked-in cheese. Scatter gruyère, parmesan, or mozzarella over the top after the first 20 minutes, then bake another 5 minutes until melted and the custard is set. This is the easiest one for the week, it reheats and slices cleanly, good for lunches and meal prep.
- Fresh goat cheese for a café-style touch perfect for company. Bake plain for the full 25-30 minutes, then once it’s out of the oven, crumble goat cheese over the top while it’s still warm.
Notes
Substitutions
- Frozen vegetables – You can use frozen veggies, but you really need to defrost and drain them very thoroughly first, then sauté them down as usual. Frozen vegetables release lots more water than fresh ones, which makes the salting and draining step even more important.
- Don’t like eggplant? More zucchini or bell peppers, easiest swap in the recipe.
- Herbes de Provence – Equal parts dried thyme, rosemary, oregano. It’s fine to leave one out.
- Olives – black or green. A small handful of halved olives, stirred in or scattered on top, is very French Provençal.
- Canned tuna – There are actually two classic versions of “quiche provençale”. This is the vegetable, ratatouille-style one. The other is more niçoise in character, built on tomato, pepper, onion and olives, with tuna instead of eggplant. To make that version, leave out the aubergine, keep everything else the same (except add a few olives), and scatter a drained tin of tuna over the prebaked crust before adding the rest of the filling and the custard.
- Salt and drain the eggplant and tomato. You really need to do this so the custard sets properly and you don’t get a watery quiche.
- Dice everything roughly the same size so it cooks evenly.
- Give the eggplant a head start in the pan, it takes longer than the rest.
- Check the bottom of the crust, not just the edges, when you finish blind baking.
- Tent the whole quiche loosely with foil at any point if the top is browning faster than the center is setting.
- This quiche is firm when it’s done, not jiggly. If you’re used to checking for wobble, that’s not the test here.
- Eat it with a fork and knife. You can pick it up, but bits may fall off your plate.
- Watery in the middle – Most likely your eggplant and tomatoes weren’t drained enough. Salt and pat dry the eggplant and tomato properly, and don’t skip giving the eggplant a head start in the pan, as it holds a bit of water. Using thick crème fraîche or sour cream rather than liquid cream also helps, it gives the custard a firmer set with a wet filling like this one.
- Top browning too fast – Place a sheet of foil loosely over the top once you see it’s starting to brown. Tent the whole thing loosely with foil rather than pulling it out early.
- Crust shrank – Probably wasn’t chilled long enough, give it the full 15-20 minutes. This happens to me all the time.
- Slices don’t hold their shape – Needs more resting time, an hour at room temperature makes a real difference.
Nutrition
Calories: 325kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 8gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 104mgSodium: 458mgPotassium: 574mgFiber: 5gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 1325IUVitamin C: 48mgCalcium: 85mgIron: 2mg
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