Quiche Lorraine

The first quiche to come to the attention of the American public was the quiche Lorraine in the 1950s. Craig Claiborne, who started as food editor of The Times in 1957, created this classic recipe with bacon, onion and cheese to fill a pie dish. If you use a tart pan, expect to have extra custard.

Ingredients

• Pastry - (for a one-crust 9-inch pie (see pastry recipe))
• bacon - 4 strips
• onion - 1 (thinly sliced)
• Gruyère - 1 cup (cubed)
• Parmesan - 0.25 cup (grated)
• egg - 4 (lightly beaten)
• heavy cream - 2 cups (or 1 cup each milk and cream)
• nutmeg - 0.25 teaspoon
• salt - 0.5 teaspoon
• pepper - 0.25 teaspoon (freshly ground)
• tabasco - (to taste)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 210 °C.
2. Line a nine-inch pie plate with the pastry. By all means build a rim with the pastry and flute it. This is essential for the amount of custard indicated in this recipe.
3. Cover the bottom of the pastry with a round of parchment paper and add enough dried beans or peas to partly fill the shell. Bake 10 minutes.
4. Reduce the oven heat to 190 °C. Remove and discard the beans and parchment paper and set the pastry-lined pie plate aside.
5. Cook the bacon until crisp and remove it from skillet. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet. Cook the onion in the remaining fat until the onion is transparent.
6. Combine the eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle the bacon, onion and cheeses over the inside of the partly baked pastry.
7. Strain the cream mixture over the onion-cheese mixture. Slide the pie onto a baking sheet.
8. Bake the pie until a knife inserted one inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand 5 or 10 minutes before serving.