One Sunday afternoon I decided to try baking a gluten free quiche filled with parmesan, pancetta, red onion and courgette and what a tasty combination it turned out to be. A lovely soft filling, with buttery gluten free pastry and yummy flavours packed in.
The filling only uses four eggs (rather than the large quantities you sometimes need for dishes of this type), mixed with milk and double cream to create more volume. The result is a soft texture that contrasts perfectly with that pastry shell.
For the pastry itself you can either make your own or use a shop-bought variety. I tend to make my own using my yummy shortcrust pasty recipe – it’s quick and easy to do!
For shop bought, Genius has a frozen gluten free shortcrust pastry and Oast to Host do a wonderful pastry mix, which I would highly recommend.
Gluten Free Parmesan, Pancetta and Courgette Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 quantity (approx 400g) of gluten free shortcrust pastry (try my recipe, it’s yummy!)
- 250ml semi-skimmed milk
- 125ml double cream
- 4 medium eggs (plus 1 egg for glazing)
- 50g grated parmesan cheese
- 8 rashers of pancetta (100g)
- 1 large red onion
- 1 medium courgette
- Black pepper
Method
- First, some preparation for the gluten free quiche filling. Dice the red onion and cook in a small saucepan over a low heat in a knob of butter. Cook gently and slowly so the onion develops a caramelised flavour.
- Cut the courgette into ribbons using a potato peeler – be careful to get nice long, thick strips. Pan fry these strips briefly for a minute or two to get rid of the excess liquid and then set aside on kitchen towel. Roll up into roses once they are cool enough to touch.
- Chop pancetta into small pieces and cook in a pan to crisp up any fat – you want the pancetta to be slightly golden and crispy. Set aside on some kitchen towel to absorb any excess fat.
- Now to prepare the gluten free shortcrust shell. Take a loose bottom pastry tin and line the base with greaseproof paper and butter the sides.
- Heat oven to 180C (fan oven).
- Place a 30cm piece of cling film onto your worktop and dust well with gluten free flour. Pop the chilled shortcrust pastry dough on top of the cling film, then greaseproof paper on top of the dough.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry out to 0.5cm thick in a large circular shape – wide enough to completely cover the tart tin and sides. If there’s any breaking or uneven edges you can just patch them up easily with other pieces of pastry.
- Carefully ease the side of the pastry onto the floured rolling pin, then carefully slide onto the tart tin. Gently tuck the pastry into the tin, pressing down to completely cover the base and around the sides. Use a sharp knife to slice off any excess pastry (you can save these offcuts in the fridge for later use). You should be left with a nice neat edge.
- Use a fork to gently prick holes in the base of the pastry tart. Place the used greaseproof paper on top of the pastry and tin, adding baking beads to fill so that you can “blind bake” the tart. Place it into the oven to blind bake for 10 minutes at 180C.
- After this, remove from the oven, lift out the baking beads and greaseproof paper and return to the over to bake for 10 minutes at 160C (fan). Then remove from the oven and set aside while you finish the filling.
- To make your filling mix the milk, cream, eggs, black pepper together in a bowl. Add the parmesan, pancetta and onion and mix well.
- Pour the mixture into pastry case, using a spoon to ensure the pancetta and onion and evenly distibuted across the base. Arrange courgettes “flowers” on top, allowing them to sink gently into the mix – try and have some poking out of the surface as this will look pretty when baked.
- Put the filled gluten free tart back in the oven and bake at 160C for 30-40 minutes, until set. It should be golden on top, but not overly browned.
- Once cooked, either transfer to a wire rack to allow the gluten free tart to cool or serve warm. This tart is wonderful either way! Serve with a zesty salad for a light summer lunch, or with new potatoes and peas for a warming meal.
Why not try some of my other gluten free recipes while you are here:
Enjoy! x