This was inspired by an episode of No Reservations from the Food Channel. After watching Mr. Bourdain rave about the virtues of lardo, I decided it was time for something with a little culture and so the search began. Apparently, unless you have a very special butcher, you’re not going to find this locally. All the ones that I asked had never heard of it. Supposedly any good Italian store should have it. I found the lardo that I used from Williams-Sonoma online but recently, they’ve stopped carrying it. Traditional lardo is basically bacon butter made out of fatback cured with rosemary and some other spices placed in marble bowls. These are then cured in caves for about 3 months. And this stuff is expensive if you can find it. To make a passable substitute, use the fattiest, medium-cut, naturally cured bacon you can find and rub it down with a thin coating of a mixture of 1/3 cup fresh chopped rosemary, 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper and 3 tablespoons of thyme. Wrap it in plastic and put away in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. When you do your preparations, just treat the recipe below the same. It won’t be as good, but in a quiche it’s passable for the real thing.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped prosciutto
- 1 cup chopped lardo
- 1 cup chopped olives (jalapeño-infused olives are even better)
- 1/2 cup Italian red peppers
- 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 2 tablespoon of good quality extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups of shredded Parmesan cheese (you want to get fancy use Parmigiano-Reggiano)
- 2 pizza crust pie pans
Filling:
Chop meats into 1/4-inch cubes. Mix together with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and put in a container in refrigerator for the night. Chop olives about the same size, but I usually just buy them that way. Prepare peppers and tomatoes the same. Mix these in their own container with another 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil. If you’re adventurous, put in 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Place in fridge for night. This really does need the overnight soak so if you’re going to make this for immediate consumption, mix these the day before.
Final Assembly and Cooking:
Mix standard quiche base and add about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of olive oil to mixture. Beat this a little more than you normally would to make sure olive oil mixes fully. Mix meats and vegetables together cold and place into pie pans with your choice of crust. Pour in quiche base and cover with 1 cup of Parmesan on each pie. For an extra touch, you can put some slices of jalapeño on top, but it’s purely decorative at this point. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or till golden brown. Remove and pack it up for the rink, or serve it.