Spinach and Bacon Tart

Spinach and Bacon Tart, simply delicious!

This recipe is from master baker, Nick Malgieri's "bake!" cookbook, and it is one of my favourite baking book. I like his pastries and bread recipes, and the ones that I've tried, turned out really well.

For this Spinach and Bacon Tart, recipe indicates to use baby spinach, but I've used the regular ones as I'm unable to find baby spinach from the market. Or you can use frozen spinach for this (refer to the recipe instructions for frozen spinach). Cook the spinach as per the recipe's instructions, once they are cooled, squeeze out any excess moisture (wow, there's so much water!) and chopped them up roughly.

The chopped spinach, ready for the tart.

I made the pastry in the morning, and while the pastry is resting in the refrigerator, I prepared the spinach and the rest of the filling ingredients.

The pastry dough is enough to make two single 25cm tarts, or one double-crust tart. Since this recipe calls for one single crust, I've kept the other half frozen. After refrigerating one half of the dough for at least an hour, the dough is then rolled out to line the base and sides of a tart pan.

The filling is made by mixing the cooked bacon and spinach, together with eggs, cream and cheese. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over the prepared crust. Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for about 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown, and the filling is set.

Freshly baked Spinach and Bacon Tart, smells really good, and I love how it looks, with specks of green spinach in creamy filling, with lovely golden brown crust.

This tart is so delicious. I really love the crust. It is so tender, flaky and buttery. As for the filling, it is delicious, with tender creamy spinach, salty bacon and all that cheese! My family love savoury tarts and pies, and this tart definitely is in our list of favourites. Though this is really good when served warm, it is just as delicious when eaten at room temperature. Yummy!

Spinach And Bacon Tart

(adapted from "bake!", Nick Malgieri)
Makes one 25cm, about 10 servings
450gm baby spinach or 280gm frozen spinach, thawed
110gm thin-sliced streaky bacon, cut into 5mm dice
85gm finely diced white or yellow onion
salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
110gm coarsely grated mature cheddar, Gouda, or Swiss Gruyere cheese
3 medium eggs
One 25cm unbaked tart crust made from Flaky Pastry Douhg (refer * below)

1. For the filling, rinse the spinach and place it in a colander to drain. Place the spinach in a large saucepan and place over a high heat. Cover the pan and let the spinach steam, uncovering and stirring it occasionally, until it is completely wilted and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain in the same colander, and allow to cool. Once cooled, squeeze the moisture from handfuls of the spinach, then coarsely chop by hand. If using frozen spinach, just wring out the excess moisture.
2. Cook the bacon over a medium heat in a shallow saute pan, stirring occasionally to keep the pieces separate. Once the bacon has coloured nicely, take off the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked bacon to a plate lined with kitchen paper. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan.
3. Set a rack in the lowest level of the oven and preheat to 190C/gas mark 5.
4. Place the pan on a medium heat and add the onion. Once it starts to sizzle, decrease the heat to low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onion is wilted and just beginning to colour, about 10 minutes. Add the spinach and bacon to the pan and season with a little salt, several grindings of pepper, and a tiny pinch of nutmeg. Stir everything together until evenly combined.
5. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and stir in the cream and grated cheese. Taste for seasoning. At this point, it should taste like well-seasoned creamed spinach. Add a little more salt and pepper if necessary. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Scrape the filling into the prepared crust and spread it evenly.
6. Bake the tart until the crust is well coloured and baked through and the filling is set, about 35-40 minutes.
7. Cool the tart on a rack and unmould it. Slide it from the flan tin base to a serving plate to serve.

Storage : Keep the tart at room temperature on the day it's baked. Loosely cover with clingfilm and store leftovers at room temperature for up to one day.

* Flaky Pastry Dough
Makes about 500gm dough, enough for two 25-cm tart crusts or one double-crust pie
260gm plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
170gm unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 12 pieces
2 medium eggs

1. To mix the dough in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix.
2. Add the butter and pulse repeatedly at 1 second intervals until the butter is in small pieces.
3. Add the eggs and pulse just until the dough almost forms a ball; pulsing too much at this point will incorporate the butter smoothly and cut down on flakiness.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and carefully remove the blade. Gently press the dough into a cohesive mass.
5. Divide the dough in half, then flatten each half into a disc. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate until firm or as long as 3 days.

~ I rolled out one half of dough to line the base and sides of a 9" tart pan. I freeze the other half.

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I'm linking this post with :

Cook-Your-Books #18 @ kitchen flavours

and
"My Treasured Recipes #3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well In Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.