Ingredients:
Crust
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
ice water (2-4 TBSPs)
2 sticks of ice-cold butter
Filling
1 container Bella or cremini mushrooms
¾ cup grated Gruyere, Swiss or provolone cheese)
1.5 lbs Italian sausage casings removed (about 3 large links from Central Market or Whole Foods)
2 shallots
6 eggs
1.5 cups of half and half or mixture of heavy cream and milk
salt
pepper
thyme
sage
2 T butter
1 T olive oil
Instructions:
To prep, start with the crust I used a pastry cutter but you could use a food processor. I start with the dry ingredients, cube the butter and quickly work cutting in the butter until it is in small pea sized pieces. Then I add in the water tbsp. by tbsp. using my hand to work the dough into a ball until it is one ball and relatively smooth. Then I pat it down into a disk and, wrap it in saran wrap and refrigerate it until I am ready for it.
For the filling, slice the mushrooms into quarters, the chunkier style as opposed to slices make the quiche seem heartier and rustic. Set those aside. Thinly slice the shallots into rings. And bring the butter and olive oil up it medium heat in your pan. Add the shallots and small pinch of salt. Cook them until they are soft and caramelized, and then add in the mushrooms and another small pinch of salt and pepper. Once those are soft and starting to brown add in 1t of thyme leaves and 3T torn sage leaves (or in my case I have a jar of dried whole sage leaves, which I crumbled in). Remove from heat and add those ingredients to a bowl. Now, remove your sausage from the casings (if they had them) and put that in your skillet over medium high heat, using a wooden spoon to break up the sausage into bite sized pieces. Not too small so that it looks like hamburger meat. It should be proportional to the mushrooms. Remove the dough and roll it out on a floured surface. It will fit a regular pie pan. Put your crust into your pan, prick holes in the bottom of the crust using a fork and place parchment down and pie weights or beans. I use the same bag of beans over and over and over again. It works great. I don't fuss with making the crust fancy. If the quiche is good, no one will remember when whether it had a nice crimp on the side.Place your weighted crust in the over for about 20 minutes. You don’t want it to fully cook, just get a head start. Meanwhile beat your eggs, cream, a tsp of salt and a ½ tsp of pepper until smooth. When the crust is ready remove the parchment and add half of the cheese on the bottom of the crust. You want a thin layer, which will create a bit of a barrier from the egg, keeping your crust slightly crisper. Add in the mushroom, shallot, sausage, and herb mixture. Mix in the remaining cheese in the egg cream mixture and pour it over the mushroom sausage mixture. Bake for 40-ish minutes or until the center of the quiche is just set.
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