I made a large quiche just like those mini ones for a dinner party, and I had leftover dough…which I did not want to throw away. Why throw away food that you enjoyed making and put time into it?  I love to play with crusts, quiches and tarts, after all, they’re the basics of French cuisine. For savory tarts, I love to use olive oil instead of butter in the crust, and make it wholesome. Olive oil adds a wonderful flavor to crusts and cakes and make them lighter. Of course traditional French cuisine uses more butter, but this blog is not about traditional French food.

I love the combination of zucchini, feta and mint, they pair so well in almost anything such as in savory cakes, flans, couscous, etc…The crust and its herbes de Provence flavor, gives you a kick of Southern French cuisine, with all its aromas, and fragrant scents. Yes indeed, these quiches will bring some warmth and will brighten your day, as Southern French food does, it’s filled with flavors, colors and freshness…so isn’t this a bit of happiness too?

I am one of those crazy people that get affected by the weather, and a bright day with natural light gives me so much happiness. If I could chose the perfect weather it would be a sunny day with 80F temperature, with a light breeze. If anyone of you live in that particular climate, please let me know and I will just move there! (no humidity please). There is a French expression that most old people would respond to when asked, comment allez-vous? “How are you doing?” most of them respond, oh comme le temps!, meaning “like the weather”, which really can show you how much the French are truly “doing” like the weather! so if it’s raining, you can just imagine how they’re doing! Ask no more…

Ingredients for 4 mini quiches

For the crust

• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) wholewheat flour
• 1.69 fl oz (or 50 ml) olive oil
• 1 tsp herbes de Provence
• water
• a pinch of salt

For the filling

• 2 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced with a mandoline
• 2 tbs feta, crumbled
• 1 tbs mint, chiffonade
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• 4 tbs milk
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the crust

Place flour in a mixing bowl, then add herbes de Provence, salt, oil, and start mixing, add water gradually enough to make the dough elastic and not crumbly. Mix well to form a ball. Wrap in a plastic film and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Divide dough in four parts and using a rolling pin, roll into 4 round sheets. Lay flat inside four tart molds.

For the filling

Place sliced zucchini in a bowl and sprinkle with coarse salt, mix well to coat. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Rinse under cold water, squeeze extra water using your hands and pat dry using a paper towel. Cut roughly.

Place olives on top of crust. Mix zucchini, feta and mint and put mixture on top of olives.

Beat eggs with cream and milk, a little salt (not too much since the feta is salty and the zucchini have absorbed some salt too), and cayenne pepper. Pour on top of zucchini mixture.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the crust is cooked on the bottom.

Something funny happened to me today that has nothing to do with food. I am looking to buy a new car, but not really new more like second hand since I gave my Golf away. So the guy I went to meet who was selling his car, was not the one I thought I was supposed to meet. The car I thought I was going to see was a white Nissan with 9000 miles and the one I ended up meeting had a black Toyota with 28,000 miles. Basically I mixed up sellers. I have been acting strange lately, maybe I need some rest.

Besides the confusion, I have had cravings for pasta, of all kinds and shapes. I have had a strange love story with pasta, somehow during my teenager years, I just refused to eat it, since my mom was making pasta al sugo at least once a week, with leftovers that lasted for a week. There were three of us, since I am an only child, and like a good Italian mamma, my mom made food for about an army, and my dad was complaining of eating leftovers. So after I rebelled against pasta like most teenagers do, they always rebel about something, I just went by phases, either I eat pasta seven days a week or just don’t eat any for months.

Looks like, I am back with my daily consumption of carbs. I remember my mom making a soup with cauliflower and tomatoes that was delicious. This dish is inspired by a Sicilian pasta dish that I twisted around a little, and I loved it. If you have a cauliflower that has been sitting in your refrigerator and not sure what to do with it, you might want to try this pasta. You’ll be surprised to see how delicious the cauliflower sauce tastes, very light, not too strong, a real delight. In my case, I had a green cauliflower, that resulted in a beautiful greenish fettuccine dish.

Ingredients for 3

• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) wholewheat fettucine
• 1 large green cauliflower
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 saffron dose
• 1 bouillon cube dissolved in water
• 4 tbs pecorino, grated
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut cauliflower florets and cook them in salted boiling water. Cook until still a little crunchy. Drain cauliflower and keep the cooking water to cook pasta.

With a potato masher or a fork, crush the floret roughly.

In a cup, mix about 1/3 cup or more hot cauliflower water with saffron threads and let it infuse for about 10 minutes. Dissolve a bouillon cube in it. (You might have to add some additional water if the sauce is too thick).

In a pan, heat olive oil and brown shallots. Add cauliflower and mix well. Add bouillon mixture, and stir well and cook for a few minutes at high heat until some of the saffron and bouillon get absorbed by cauliflower and infused in the sauce. If the sauce is too thick add extra water. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add cream. At this point, you need to have a little creamy sauce (not too liquid) with cauliflower but not too much.

Cook fettuccine in the cauliflower water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower. Mix well, let the fettuccine absorbe the sauce, add pecorino and serve hot.

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