In-House Cook: Saffron Rice, Sausage and Egg Quiche Pie

Leftovers Magic!
Saffron Rice, Sausage, Cheese and Egg Quiche Pie

In order to understand this delectably delightful leftovers meal, please check out my previous blog post about stuffed bells. The leftover rice, sausage and cheese mixture goes into this quiche pie. It is fast, easy as pie -- pun intended, but it is true -- and insanely delicious! it is quite filling; I had one piece and I was done, so it is quite a one-serving meal for most people. Easily, this serves 4-6 people.

This is another one of my true pantry meals. I had the leftovers in the frig, and I have had croutons that I was going to use for a dinner for a friend but we changed our minds to tsukemono, rather than traditional salad. This ingredients list is rather long, so settle in, okay?

Ingredients

leftover saffron rice

4-6 eggs

1 bag croutons (I had garlic)

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, halved

drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

cheese

Alright, it was a little longer than I'd thought, but you get how simplistic this is. Here's the fun part. Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Melt the butter (I have old metal measuring cups so I just put it on a small burner on low).

As the butter melts, open the full bag of croutons (or bags of croutons, if you have more than one and are freezing them), and add them to your blender or food processor. Process until they are mere crumbs. Set aside.

Using a paper towel drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, or, using cooking spray, oil a pie plate, rim included. Pour the crouton crumbs into the pie plate, drizzle the butter around the crumbs, circularly, which is my preference for forming the crust, but you do what is good for you. 😃 Use your fingers (washed, please) to form a crust up to an just over the rim of the pie plate. I added a tiny sprinkle of dried Italian herbs.

Bake the buttery crouton crust for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, as the crust is baking, add 1.5 cups of the rice and sausage mixture to a bowl and add 4-6 eggs. Four large or six medium eggs. Use a large fork to thoroughly mix the two together. Smush the rice apart and make sure the only lumps are the sausage. You could add cheese now, if you have not made my stuffed bells dish, and are just using leftover rice, but my mixture has both mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses in it already. That is why I did not have salt and pepper on the ingredients list. I had added enough salt and pepper to the rice mixture from the previous meal and, I also added a little more Parmesan to the top of the pie. If you want to add more to meet your taste needs, feel free! I also added some Chile powder to give it some heat to complement the saffron.

Once the crust has finished pre-baking, remove it and carefully add the eggy rice mixture. It may slurp over the rim a little. That is why I said try to work the crust up to and over the rim. It will cling on to the egg. I also suggest, at this point, to place a rimmed baking pan under the pie plate. Sprinkle a little more Italian seasoning atop the mixture and bake for 30 minutes at 350-degrees. At that time, pull out the rack and add your favorite cheese to the top. I used a 4-cheese Italian mix I bought at the grocer. Continue to bake for 12 more minutes (really, 12 is perfect for my old 1982 oven).

Finally, remove the pie and set it aside to rest. You probably do not want to serve it immediately, so the egg and rice mixture settle and firm up. Let it rest about five solid minutes.