Herbed Ricotta Tart

I subscribe to Cooking Light Magazine and I really like the recipes that they publish.  I often find that some issues are full of possibilities, whereas others are not as appealing to my palate.  The most recent August issue has some great ideas and we tried the Herbed Ricotta Tart this past week.  It was great, and I can see a lot of options available for it.  It is basically a quiche, but the ricotta cheese changes the texture creating a more creamy texture.  This recipe stands just fine on its own, and doesn't need to be tweaked at all, however I can foresee using the basic recipe and changing up the herbs, or adding other items to the mix.

The recipe called for one of the pizza crusts that come in a tube, my budget and self worth wouldn't let me even think of purchasing one of those when I have a perfectly good, easy and yummy pizza crust recipe myself.  The use of a pizza crust with a tart/quiche was new to me, and lent an interesting texture to the final outcome.  I do think that next time I will try using my flaky pastry crust that I typically use with quiche instead.  To me the pizza crust dominated the filling.

• 1  (11-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
• Cooking spray
• 2  cups  thinly sliced green onions
• 1 1/3  cups  part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2  cup  thinly sliced fresh chives
• 2  tablespoons  minced fresh dill
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 2  large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1  large egg white, lightly beaten
• 2  tablespoons  finely grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Unroll dough, and press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch round removable-bottom tart pan coated with cooking spray.

3. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add thinly sliced green onions to pan; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine cooked green onions, ricotta cheese, sliced fresh chives, minced fresh dill, salt, freshly ground black pepper, eggs, and egg white. Pour onion mixture into prepared crust; sprinkle mixture with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 6 wedges.