I was skimming through one of the magazines in the waiting room at the clinic. I came across an interview with a famous chef, he was talking about his career and how he got to be where he is now. The part that really caught my attention was that he said: (When you read the hobbies and interests part in people’s CV , you usually get : reading, drawing, sport.. but you rarely find “cooking” listed as a hobby. Though many people love to cook but for some reason they don’t regard it as a”hobby”). He said that the reason for his success was that he took something he really enjoyed, namely cooking, and made it his career.
It made me think…many people get caught up in jobs or even lives they don’t enjoy simply because they lack the courage to step outside the beaten path..Very few people dig deep inside to find something they are passionate about and decide to turn that into a quest, a career or even a hobby! But the lucky few who do get to live lives worth living!
So inspired by my chef friend, I decided to make a few changes in my life. I updated my CV (you should be able to guess what I added to it 🙂 )and I started this blog.
What did you do lately for YOU?
My recipe today is adapted from all recipes with a few tweaks and additions.
To the filling, I added some onions, garlic and red and yellow pepper to give it texture and a little more flavour.
I decided not to saute the zucchini slices that I arranged on the top, instead I sliced them super thin and brushed them with some olive oil..
The end result was absolutely delicious! Flaky crust, creamy filling layers of flavour..
Pie crust
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
3 tablespoons cold water
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Filling
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 chopped onion
1 clove of garlic
1/2 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 yellow pepper chopped
1 pound zucchini, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Dash pepper
To make the crust
Pulse the flour ,salt, baking powder in the food processor.
Add diced cold butter and pulse untill mix resembles coarse crumbs
Add water slowly while pulsing…don’t over mix it (over mixing will give you a brick instead of a flaky crust).
Dump the dough onto plastic wrap. It will look something like this…
Gently gather dough into a ball, wrap in cling film, chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Roll out dough. I roll it between two layers of parchment paper to make it easier to transfer it to the pie dish
Prick bottom of pastry with a fork. Bake at 425 degrees F for 7 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees for 8 more minutes.
In a small skillet, saute onions and garlic until translucent. Add zucchini(reserve some sliced zucchini to arrange on top) and pepper, steer until tender; drain.
Place the zucchini mix in the crust. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
In a bowl, combine ricotta cheese, cream, eggs, salt, oregano, basil, paprika and pepper. Pour into crust.
Arrange remaining zucchini slices over top. Sprinkle with paprika.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Chef in disguise 