Anne Morgan The real Delia Smith courgette quiche recipe has sliced courgettes, onion and Gruyère under eggs and cream, and it cuts into 4 to 6 slices. You brown the courgettes in butter with a softened onion, then bake the quiche for about 40 minutes at 180°C. Her Complete Cookery Course prints it, and the whole recipe takes about 1¾ hours.
Her book calls it Courgette and Cheese Quiche. The cheese is Gruyère with Parmesan on top, so the feta and tomato versions online come from other cooks.
It is printed under her mushroom quiche recipe. Both use the same pastry case and the same eggs.
Delia Smith’s Courgette Quiche
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium4-6
servings40
minutes1
hour5
minutes560
kcalThin slices of courgette, lightly browned with onion, under Gruyère and a set egg custard in a plain shortcrust case.
Ingredients
- For the pastry:
110g (4oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) lard
25g (1oz) margarine or butter
a pinch of salt
cold water, to mix
- For the filling:
225g (8oz) courgettes
1 small onion, finely chopped
25g (1oz) butter
50g (2oz) Gruyère, grated
2 large eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
275ml (10fl oz) single or double cream
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Pastry: Rub the lard and margarine into the flour and salt until it looks like breadcrumbs. Mix in a little cold water to make a dough, then rest it in a polythene bag in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Oven: Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas mark 4, with a baking sheet on the centre shelf. Lightly grease a 20cm fluted quiche tin with a removable base.
- Case: Roll out the pastry, line the tin and prick the base all over with a fork. Bake it on the centre shelf for 15 minutes.
- Seal: Beat the eggs and the yolk thoroughly. Paint the inside of the case with a little of the egg, then give it 5 minutes more in the oven.
- Courgettes: Slice the courgettes fairly thinly. Soften the onion in the butter in a frying pan for 5 minutes, then add the courgettes and brown them a little, turning them often.
- Fill: Move the onion and courgettes to the pastry case and sprinkle the Gruyère over them.
- Custard: Whisk the cream into the rest of the egg and season it. Pour it over the filling, then sprinkle the Parmesan on top.
- Bake: Bake the quiche on the baking sheet for 35 to 40 minutes, until the centre is set and the top is puffy and browned.
Notes
- If you have the time, salt the sliced courgettes for 30 minutes and dry them in a cloth before frying.
- The first edition of the book has 2 large eggs and leaves out the extra yolk.
- The 4 to 6 slices are my own count for a 20cm quiche.
FAQs
Do courgettes need to be cooked before they go in a quiche?
Yes, briefly. Delia fries the slices in the butter after the onion has softened, only until they colour a little.
She keeps water away from courgettes. In her notes she fries them, so the edges turn crisp and golden.
Why is my courgette quiche watery?
Courgettes hold a fair amount of water. Delia’s cure, when she has the time, is salt.
Slice them thinly into rounds and layer them in a colander, with salt on each layer. Put a plate and a heavy weight on top, then wait 30 minutes.
Quite a bit of water will have come out by then. Dry the slices really well in a clean cloth before you fry them.
Do I peel the courgettes?
No. Delia always leaves the skin on.
She also reminds us what courgettes are: baby marrows, picked small.
Which cheese goes in a courgette quiche?
Gruyère, if you can. Her list says 50g of cheese, preferably Gruyère, grated.
A tablespoon of grated Parmesan goes over the top before baking. Her asparagus quiche recipe pairs Cheddar with Parmesan in the same way.
What can replace the cream in a courgette quiche?
Yoghurt, for half of it. Delia’s own list gives single or double cream, or half cream and half yoghurt.
Her note on quiche fillings adds milk as another choice, but it calls double cream the best of all.
Which other filling does Delia give for this quiche?
Kippers. The first edition of her book prints a Kipper Quiche right under this recipe, as a variation.
It takes 225g of cooked, flaked kippers in place of the courgettes. Then 2 teaspoons of mustard, some grated nutmeg and a couple of pinches of cayenne go into the egg and cream.
