I think it takes a special kind of person who can work from home every single day. I work with people who beg to work from home and for the life of me I can’t understand why. I get the fact that I can do a lot of work uninterrupted, which is really helpful to me when I am in review writing season but every day; all day is just not for me at all. I would eventually become a non-showering, overly caffeinated, sweat pants wearing social pariah. A person seriously needs an absolute discipline in organizing your work day, which is something I obviously lack. Structure is good for me. Get up, shower, brush my teeth, put on make-up, wear nice clothes, my fun and fabulous shoes and to work we go.
From Spiral Vegetable Maker to Zucchini & Feta tart to Arugula
A few weeks ago I was miserable on many fronts, two of which resulted in having to or at least making the conscious decision to work from home. The first is that I got strep when I was visiting my family in England and brought it back State-side with me. Talk about seriously and painfully miserable and the second is that I had surgery on my eye to remove a lump I had had for many years. While strep is horrible, the latter was so much worse than I thought it would be. Extremely painful and so spectacularly bruised and swollen, I looked like I had lost a fight with Rocky and Apollo Creed!!! I absolutely could not be seen in public. I was not allowed to exercise or be in direct sunlight for 5 days so I worked from home every day and stayed in every night.
I got so much work done, I don’t think I have ever been that much on top of my always busy inbox and so I was left with thinking about what to do with my evenings other than watching TV, which of course I did every night.
The first of many slices that weekend
While I am very lucky with having good friends who came over to join me for dinner and have a little chat while staring at the abomination that was my right eye, there were nights and two full weekends I was alone. One of these weekend days led to a little obsession with wanting to find a recipe for the ridiculous amount of zucchini I had purchased and to use a vegetable spiral maker I had bought years before and used once. I looked in my fridge and wanted to also prepare a dish which used feta (the one cheese I had in there) only to find there were not as many recipes as I would have liked. So, I found a hodgepodge of recipes for zucchini and goat cheese quiche and turned it into something I absolutely loved and will most definitely be making again… A Zucchini and Feta Tart.
For a few hours I filled an otherwise dull, mirror avoiding afternoon.
Zucchini & Feta Tart
Ingredients
- For the Pie Crust if you are making your own. Store bought works just as well.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
- 1- teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled diced
- 2 large eggs yolk
- 2-3 tablespoons ice water
For the tart
- 1 large zucchini or 2 small ones
- 11 ounces feta cheese
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2- cup ricotta cheese
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/4- cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2- teaspoon salt.
- 1/2- teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
For the pie crust
- In a food processor, combine the flour, Parmesan Cheese, salt, butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle in the water and pulse until the mixture comes together. Turn out of the food processor, form into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the pastry to a thickness of 1/8-inch and place in a 9-inch tart shell with a removable bottom. Blind bake until lightly golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.
For the filling
- Use your spiral vegetable maker to the spaghetti spiral the zucchini. Of course, not everyone has one of these rarely used contraptions so just thick grate your zucchini. Using a large pan, lightly sauté it with salt, pepper, garlic, red chili flakes. Set aside to cool down.
- Into a large mixing bowl place the goat cheese, butter, ricotta cheese, and beat ingredients with a mixer on high speed until smooth.
- Add the egg yolks one at a time, then the flour, salt, and pepper, mixing well to incorporate. Mix half of the zucchinis. Leaving the other half for topping.
- Pour the cheese and zucchini mixture into mixture into the prepared piecrust and bake until the top is golden and the filling is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow cooling for 30-40 minutes before serving.
Notes
