The Busy Gourmand

Savory Spinach Pastis

This dish is inspired by a lunch we had in Barcelona that served a savory “pastis” or pie as the first course. While I originally thought it was basically a quiche without a crust, I now realize that it had much less custard, and a lot more egg than the traditional quiche.

With a little help from a frittata recipe in Bon Appétit, I amended the recipe to add much more cream to bring it closer to the “pastis” but not so much cream that you would use to make it a quiche. And like a frittata there is no crust. This actually seems to make the whole dish a bit lighter than a quiche.

Much like a frittata or a quiche this recipe can be amended to add just about any type of savory ingredients. Although I added some sausage here to give the dish some more heft the dishes in Barcelona were largely vegetarian.

• 6 oz baby spinach leaves, or large leaves large stems removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
• 8 large eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9”x9” baking dish making sure the butter gets into all the corners.

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and sauté until cooked through making sure to break up the sausage into small pieces, about another 5 minutes. Add the spinach to the pan and sauté until the spinach is wilted into small pieces. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

Whisk the eggs, half-and-half, cream and the feta cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add some salt and pepper. Add the cooled ingredients from the sauté pan into the bowl and whisk making sure the ingredients are evenly spread throughout the liquid mixture. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and place in the oven.

Pastis Fresh from the Oven

Bake the pastis until the egg is set in the middle. This should take between 40 and 45 minutes depending on the oven temperature. Remove the pastis from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. The pastis may then be cut into serving pieces for plating. This makes four rather substantial portions. If you are serving it as an appetizer I think you could easily make six portions.

In Barcelona this dish is usually served with a bit of red tomato sauce. A simple marinara or some very simple sauce from the jar will work well.