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Swiss Chard and Leek Tart

Move over quiche, there's a new kid in town- a bigger, fancier, yummier, more elegant kid that knocks quiche out of the park. For those of you concerned about how many calories it takes to make this, I can offer only 3 pieces of advice- 1) it's worth it 2) it's rich enough that just a small piece will satisfy you 3)eat a salad with it, it will make you feel better. To those of you who are wondering why I feel compelled to use ricotta in every recipe I make its because I LOVE it and can't get enough of it. In America you can get a huge tub of it for like  $1.50 in every supermarket- its cheap, abundant and nothing special. Here, I have to practically sell my car to get 500 grams and you can find it only by the specialty cheese counter or hidden behind piles of plastic chummus containers in a small blue packages made by Gad. So, when I find it on sale I buy a ton of it even though the expiration date usually only gives me 2 weeks to use up all 6 pounds of it. Hence, ricotta will be the theme of many recipes to come.

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
125 grams (or 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbls) cold butter cut into cubes
nice pinch of salt
2 Tbl cold water

Combine the flour and salt together and then crumble in the butter with your hands or a pastry cutter. Add the water and mix just until a dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour and then press into a tart pan.

For the Filling:
1 package Swiss chard (beet leaves in Israel), cleaned and chopped
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
3 Tbl oil
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 container lower fat sour cream like 9%- (this is my sole attempt to lighten this up)
3 eggs
1 container whipping cream (its about a cup and its 32% -GASP! If you actually did just gasp you can substitute a cup of whole milk instead but trust me, it will not be as good)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (although such a mere amount is hardly  making a dent in my stock)
1/4-1/3 cup grated Mozzarella
pinch of nutmeg (there is nothing like fresh grated)
S&P

Preheat oven to 350. Heat oil in a saute pan on medium heat and add sliced garlic when hot. Watch the garlic to make sure it doesn't burn but let it fry until its very lightly golden brown. Remove garlic from pan (and pat yourself on the back because you have now officially made garlic oil). Add the leek and cook until tender and then add the swiss chard and cook until wilted. Add salt and pepper to the mixture and set aside. In a bowl whisk together sour cream, eggs, cream and ricotta. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Place leek filling on top of the tart crust making sure it is spread out all over. Pour cream mixture over and sprinkle with Mozzarella. Bake for about an hour.

Comments

  1. I tasted this and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!!

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  2. Sounds ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS !!!! Perfect for a special ocassion dairy dish.

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  3. Was this on the Friday night menu? If you give me leftovers, I'll post something nice. :) Looks and sounds delicious.

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  4. Ok, now that I've tasted it, I can attest to the fact that it is AMAZING! I really, really enjoyed it. The only thing that I have to say is that one piece was not enough. :)

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  5. this was heaven!!! thanks for the recipe!

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