It is Christmas time! Now, it's not entirely the most festive of years. But I will never turn down an opportunity to make an inordinate amount of food. After all, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I like the snow. I like the twinkling lights. And you don't have to ask me twice to bring a tree into the house. Yet my favorite thing about the holidays? Is having absolutely any excuse to make enough food to feed an army. This year I have decided on making Pecans, Spinach, and Ricotta Quiche with Macaroni & Cheese w/ Gruyère & White Wine. As well as a whole host of cookies that you can find in my article on Christmas 2021. After all, no Christmas is complete without four batches of cookies that you will inevitably eat in one sitting!
It took me a little bit to figure out that I was going to make a quiche. I pretty much just contemplated absolutely everything that I might want to make for the holiday season and then figure it out from there. I'd been thinking about perhaps a lasagna, maybe fondue, and perchance mashed potatoes? So, I got fresh mozzarella and ricotta in case I made a lasagna. White wine and a plethora of cheese if I opted for fondue. And a Costco-sized bag of potatoes.
After deciding that, no, I in fact did not want to make absolutely any of these things that I'd oh so carefully planned for ahead of time! I simply threw absolutely everything into a festive holiday quiche. Which ended up being a double batch of quiche, for what should be obviously overstuffed reasons... Although I do have an enormous cast iron skillet just waiting for this type of occasion! You can easily cut the recipe in half for a more reasonably sized quiche.
When it comes to tossing everything into a dish but the kitchen sink? This holiday quiche absolutely takes the cake. This quiche consists of yukon gold potatoes, spinach, aged white cheddar cheese, almost a dozen eggs, dijon mustard, garlic, pecans, dry white wine, milk, and ricotta. This is a double holiday batch. For a more reasonable size, just cut the recipe in half.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and very lightly coat a baking dish with olive oil.You want the least amount of oil necessary to keep the sweet potatoes from sticking. Too much oil will transfer to the egg custard and that's not what you're looking for in a quiche!
Meanwhile, slice the potatoes. You want them uniformly sliced at about 1/8 inch thick.
Arrange in a spiral along the bottom of the baking dish.I used a 12" cast iron pan, which isn't necessarily recommended with dairy products. A well-seasoned pan will be fine. Although you still may want to do another good coating after this recipe if you do this as well! Otherwise, a round baking dish is more traditional and any sufficiently-sized baking dish is fine.
Add chopped spinach, grated cheese, and crushed pecans on top of the potatoes.
Very slowly drizzle the egg mixture over the rest of the ingredients.There are A LOT of layers for this to go through. It will take a little bit of time for them to permeate. So, I almost suggest doing this in stages and pour in about 1/3 of it at a time.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until just set and lightly brown. You want the egg to still juggle slightly, but not be liquid.
Serve immediately or chilled. Quiche is a great recipe to make ahead of time because it keeps well and is just as good cold. If you do reheat it, though, I would recommend heating in the oven. Oftentimes egg dishes don't microwave well as this tends to overcook them.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
This is a double batch from what I would ordinarily make. You can easily cut the recipe in half for a more usual-sized quiche. Although you will need to roast the potatoes ahead of time. This quiche is so large that it has more than enough time to cook the potatoes by the time that the custard sets. However, if you do cut the recipe in half, the cooking time will also cut down dramatically (usually to 45-60 minutes). So, just pop the potatoes in the oven until tender (usually 20-25 minutes), let cool slightly, and then proceed with adding the spinach and the rest of the ingredients.
I also have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Crustless Quiche with more tips and tricks on whether or not you want a crust, whether or not you need dairy or cheese, the type of pan to use, and a recommendation of toppings.
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