Zucchini Bacon Tart

I've been cooking up summer veggies for the last two weeks, but it will take me a while to get all the recipes and images on the blog. I'll start today with zucchini, since we're all swimming in it.

This particular recipe is for all my baco-vegetarian friends out there.

What do you do with an over-abundance of zucchini, too few eggs in the fridge, and a lonely leftover piece of frozen puff pastry dough?

Here's what you'll need . . .

• 1 sheet puff pastry dough, defrosted
• 4 slices of meaty bacon
• 2 medium zucchinis, grated
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• cracked black pepper, to taste (whatever that means)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk

Here's what to do . . .

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a quiche pan or pie plate.

Unfold the puff pastry sheet and place it in the bottom of the quiche pan or pie plate. Yes, it is possible to put a square peg in a round hole. Just fold the corners down:

Cut the raw bacon strips into small pieces. Start frying the bacon in a cold pan over low heat, rendering out as much of the fat as possible. Cook until the pieces are very crisp.

When the bacon is done, turn off the heat and transfer the pieces to a paper towel. Remove most of the bacon fat from the frying pan, but don't clean it out yet.

Add the shredded zucchini and stir fry over medium low heat. Use the moisture in the zucchini to deglaze the pan; scrape the tiny bits of bacon from the bottom of the pan into the zucchini. Add the thyme and black pepper and continue to stir fry.

When the zucchini is dry and starts to stick to the pan, turn off the heat.

Allow the zucchini to cool down somewhat, then spread it over the puff pastry dough. Spread the shredded cheese over the zucchini. Spread the cooked bacon pieces over the cheese.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Pour the mixture evenly over the bacon. There will barely be enough liquid to cover and you may even need to use your (clean) fingers to press down on the contents of the pan to make sure the egg mixture coats everything.

Bake at 375 degrees until the top is browned. For me, this took about 40 minutes.

This dish turned out great. I ate the first piece hot with some cherry tomatoes for lunch. The rest, I packaged into sandwich bags for quick breakfast fare last week. It's like a quiche, but not so egg-y. It's also like a pizza, but more bacon-y. And the crust comes out delightfully flake-y.