Recipe(tried): Italian Sausage and Cheese Quiche

Here is one of my favorite brunch recipes. It makes a large quiche, so use a 10 inch pie pan if you do not have a large quiche dish.

Italian Sausage and Cheese Quiche

Crust:
1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons butter
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Place the flour, salt and Parmesan cheese in a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add four tablespoons water and stir with a fork, gathering the dough into a ball with your fingertips. Add a few more drops of water if necessary to make the dough stick together. Wrap the dough in wax paper and chill one hour.

Roll out and fit into a nine to ten inch quiche tin or nine to ten inch pie plate. Cover the pastry with a sheet of aluminum foil, pressing it firmly around the sides and over the edges of the pastry.

Fill with uncooked rice or dry beans (or pie weights if you have them) and bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 7 minutes.

Carefully remove the rice or beans and aluminum foil. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork and continue baking 5 minutes more. The crust should not brown but should be only partially baked. Let the pastry cool before filling and baking the quiche.

Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees F.

Custard Filling:
4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon flour
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)

Beat all of these ingredients together with a wire whisk until blended.

Next:
3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespons finely chopped fresh parsley

Remove the sausage meat from the casing and crumble into small pieces. Place in a skillet and saute over low heat until completely cooked through but not brown.

Pour off all the accumulated fat and stir in the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, salt, pepper and parsley. Stir the custard into the sausage mixture.

Pour into the prepared pastry shell and bake in the preheated oven 40 minutes until puffed and brown.

Servings: 6 to 8