Friday, September 17, 2010

Fennel Pie

Last night I had planned on making a Caprese pasta with fresh tomatoes from our garden. But since we’ haven’t had too much sun this week, I didn’t have enough ripe tomatoes to harvest. So I rooted around the fridge to figure out what else I could make. I had fennel, kale, zucchini, feta cheese, fresh mozzarella and a little bit of onion. I realized I could make the Moosewood New Classics Fennel Quiche with some sautéed kale on the side. Perfect.

This meal was a little more work than I felt like doing, but it wasn’t too arduous. The most time-consuming part was making a piecrust. But I used a trick I’d just seen on the cooking show Ciao Italia. Grate frozen butter on a regular cheese grater and then mix it into your flour. Since keeping the dough cold is the key to flakey crust, this struck me as an excellent idea. Also, I buy butter in bulk and always store it in the freezer. And it worked out perfectly. The dough felt cold to the touch as I rolled it out on a piece of parchment paper.

The Moosewood recipe called for sautéing the fennel, onion, tomato and zucchini before putting it on the piecrust. And you make rich custard from feta cheese, tomato juice and eggs in a blender. Then you top the veggies with cheese, pour over the custard and bake. It smells heavenly while cooking. And makes a tasty lunch, or even breakfast, the next day. Plus it was a great use of Persephone Farm fennel, eggs, onion, zucchini and kale.

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