#13 - Quiche Lorraine with Ligabue Salad

A quick and easy meal we sometimes like to make is this arugula, bean, and tuna salad that we first had at Piola. Not only is it healthy, easy, and tasty, what really sold us was the name - Ligabue.

But since it is just a salad, we normally like to have quiche to go with it. Until today, we've settled for store bought Giant brand quiche that we plop in the oven. Today, though, we decided to go for glory.

Quiche Lorraine

From Joy of Cooking
As we've mentioned before, we sometimes get our produce from our CSA. Not only do we get fruits and veggies, we can also get farm-fresh eggs too. So not only did we get some baby arugula for the Ligabue, we got a dozen eggs that looked perfect for our quiche.
And we could almost make the whole quiche with just this one egg. Look at the size of this thing!
Since it is still a weeknight, we didn't have the energy/ambition/courage to make our own pie crust from scratch, so we used a store bought crust that we just had to pre-bake for a little bit before filling.
Supposedly, Quiche Lorraine isn't supposed to have cheese - just bacon - but we decided to go with a more modern version and added some Swiss. Because who doesn't love cheese? And Wikipedia says its okay.
For being such an easy thing to make, it came out really delicious. It makes us wonder if we'll ever buy a Giant quiche again. And paired with our Ligabue salad, it was a great meal.

It really was easy, so maybe next time we'll attempt to make our own crust too. But probably not during the workweek.
Here's the recipe for the quiche, and even though we didn't take pictures of us making the salad, the recipe for the Ligabue too:

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients

• 1 pre-made pie crust
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 oz bacon
• 2 cups milk or cream
  
• 3-4 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• Ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, diced

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Shape the pie crust dough into a 9-inch pie pan, and cook according to the directions on the box for a pre-baked, one-crust filled pie.
3. While still warm, brush the baked crust with the egg yolk.
4. Chop bacon into 1 inch parts and cook over medium heat, and set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.
6. Sprinkle the bacon and Swiss cheese on the bottom of the pie crust.
7. Pour the custard mixture over the bacon and cheese.
8. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until the top is golden brown.
   

Ligabue Salad

Ingredients

• 1 lb arugula
• 1 15.5oz can of cannellini beans, drained
  
• 1 7oz can of tuna fish
• Parmigiano cheese, shaved
  
• Olive oil
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Preparation

1. Place arugula in a large serving bowl.
2. Add cannellini beans, tuna fish, and shaved Parmigiano, and mix well.
3. Toss with olive oil and vinegar until lightly coated.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.