Madhouse recipe : Potato, spinach and bacon quiche

Some time ago, I saw the idea in a magazine of using potato slices to replace the pastry case of a quiche. This popped into my head when I decided to make a spinach and bacon quiche this week so I decided to give it a go. It's not bad at all, although it is more time consuming than using a pastry case - and I did set the smoke detector off when I was frying the potatoes ! (I didn't think it was that smoky so it shows it works !)

Potato, spinach and bacon quiche

ingredients :

5 medium-sized potatoes

200g bacon lardons

300g spinach

3 eggs

200g ricotta

2 cheese spread triangles

Zap the potatoes in the microwave for 10-15 minutes until they are soft and pretty much cooked through. Leave to cool and cook the spinach and bacon in two separate pans. (I used frozen spinach but fresh would be fine too.) Reserve. Once they've cooled enough to handle, slice the potatoes and fry them in batches in a little olive oil on both sides for a couple of minutes. (This is where my smoke alarm started beeping !) Drain off excess oil with kitchen paper.

Line a flan dish with foil and use the potato slices to line the bottom. Place overlapping vertical slices around the outside too.

Beat three eggs and mix them, along with the bacon, ricotta and cheese triangles, into the spinach. Pour over the potatoes and spread with a palette knife. Bake in the oven at 180° for 20-30 minutes.

It looks absolutely identical when it comes out, so use the point of a knife to check the eggs have set.

Cut into portions in the dish and use a fish slice to delicately remove each slice, being careful that the potatoes don't fall apart. This is easier if you leave it to cool slightly before serving - it's best served warm rather than hot.

I served this with peas and carrots but it's actually perfect as an all-in-one dish. The creaminess of the ricotta and the saltiness of the bacon take the spinach to another level and the potato "crust" works very well so I'll be tempted to do this again if I have some leftover boiled or baked potatoes to use up. I think this would work really well with a cheese and bacon quiche too.