Quiche is a savory pie, typical of French cuisine, with a filling made of eggs and crème fraîche, which is a sour cream with a high fat content. Beside eggs and cream, quiche filling can be with meat or vegetables, like this cheese-free artichoke quiche. The most famous version of quiche is of course quiche lorraine, originating, as the name suggests, from the French region of Lorraine.
In quiche lorraine a soft and crumbly pastry shell contains a filling made of eggs, crème fraîche and bacon. The original recipe does not call for cheese, and I mentally thank French cuisine for churning out such a delicious cheese-free quiche. The variant with cheese, however, is called quiche vosgienne, but we steer clear of it.
Let’s now briefly discuss what crème fraîche is. It is a sour cream, with a high fat content (30 to 45%), widely used in French and Nordic cuisine, in general. As it is not easy to find on the market, I replaced it with heavy whipping cream even if the consistency and taste are not naturally the same: sour cream, in fact, is much thicker and has a sour aftertaste, as the name suggests. However, since the filling is artichoke-based, in my opinion a sweeter note, like that of cream, instead of the traditional sour cream, goes much better.
However, if you want to replace the cream with crème fraîche and can’t find it, you can try making a homemade sour cream-like mixture of half fresh liquid cream, half unsweetened white yogurt (or Greek yogurt, for more consistency) and half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Then let it sit for about half an hour in the refrigerator. The process is practically identical to that for making homemade buttermilk.
Among the rules to keep in mind, when preparing a quiche with or without cheese, is the layering of ingredients. Once the shortcrust pastry shell has been laid out in the mold, place the bacon (in the case of quiche lorraine) or vegetables on the bottom. This will partially isolate the pastry shell from the more liquid part. Then, if you use it, the cheese. And, finally, you pour the so-called “royale”, that is, the mixture of eggs and cream (or sour cream).
This cheese-free artichoke quiche is good served hot, improves when it gets warm and continues to be perfect the next day, warming it slightly, because the flavors are further amalgamated.
Medium
8 servings
40'
40'
INGREDIENTI
FOR SHORTCRUST PASTRY
- 250 g of plain flour
- 125 g di butter (cold)
- 60 g of chilled whole milk (or chilled water)
- Salt
FOR FILLING
- 480 g of artichokes
- 250 ml of cream (or sour cream or crème fraîche)
- 3 eggs
- 1 garlic clove
- Marjoram
- Extra virgin oil
- Salt
PREPARAZIONE
- Prepare the shortcrust pastry: pour the sifted flour into a large bowl and add the cold butter in small pieces. Knead the flour with the butter, using your fingertips. Make sure that the butter mixes completely with the flour and no visible pieces remain. You should obtain a sort of “sand”.
- Add the chilled milk (or water, your choice) and a generous pinch of salt.
- Knead until you have a dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for about 45′.
- In the meantime, prepare the artichokes, removing the tougher outer leaves, the tip and the inner beard and cut them into slices. As you cut them, place them in acidulated water so that they do not blacken.
- Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add a peeled clove of garlic.
- Add the artichokes and cook them, adding a little water if necessary. Make sure that at the end they are very dry, though.
- At the end, salt lightly and let the artichokes cool.
- Turn on the oven in ventilated mode at 170 ° C.
- Beat the eggs and the cream (or sour cream or crème fraîche) in a bowl with a whisk. Add the marjoram leaves and salt to taste.
- Roll out the sfortcrust pastry to about 2-3 mm thickness and line a tart pan (do not butter or flour the pan).
- Spread the artichokes evenly over the bottom of the pastry shell.
- Pour over the artichokes the royale, that is the mixture of eggs and cream.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes. Do the toothpick test before removing the quiche from the oven: the toothpick should be dry, at most only slightly moist.
- Let the cheese-free artichoke quiche cool down, unmold it and serve it with a light salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and carrots.