recipes

Slow-roasted cherry tomato & Scamorza crustless quiche

Ingredients

For the crustless quiche:

- 16 large eggs
- 400gr natural cottage cheese
- 250gr smoked Scamorza
- 130gr mixed leaves: spinach, rocket & watercress
- 2 tsp sea salt
- Pepper to taste

For the pesto:

- 50gr fresh basil
- 25gr pine nuts
- 30gr parmesan
- 75ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1/2 tsp sea salt

For the slow-roasted cherry tomatoes:

- 500gr mixed jewelled cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp Italian-style herb seasoning
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt to taste

Method

I start by roasting the cherry tomatoes. I warm up my oven at 150ºC. Until it reaches the temperature, I wash and halve my cherry tomatoes and add them to a bowl. I then add the extra virgin olive oil, herb seasoning and salt and mix well. I line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper onto which I then carefully place the tomatoes seed side up and roast for 45 minutes, checking on them every 20 minutes or so to make sure they are slowly softening. 

Whilst the tomatoes roast, I make my pesto for which I quite literally put all the ingredients into the food processor and leave to work until the right consistency is achieved, whilst making sure that the garlic has been well incorporated into the mix (it may help if you chop the garlic clove into large chunks before adding into the food processor). I always taste my pesto to make sure the flavour is as desired before pouring it into a bowl and setting it aside. 

To make the quiche batter, I crack the eggs into a large bowl (yolks and whites), add the natural cottage cheese and salt and use electric beaters to bring the mixture together. I tend to grate my smoked Scamorza, however, you can slice or chop it, if you prefer larger chunks of cheese. I then fold in the leaves and grated Scamorza using a silicone spatula.

Once all of the elements are ready, I grease a rectangular baking dish (30cm x 22cm), pour the quiche batter with the mixed leaves and grated cheese into the baking dish and carefully place the tomatoes on top so that they don’t sink during the bake. I also spoon some pesto onto the quiche, around the tomatoes. I then bake this at 200ºC for 20 minutes and then bring the heat down to 180ºC for a further 15 minutes.

The quiche will still wobble a little when taken out of the oven, though the mixture should be fully cooked. I leave it to cool and serve it with some gluten-free sourdough bread and any leftover pesto on the side.

Enjoy this flavourful crustless quiche for brunch or lunch and it even makes for a great picnic snack.