Mushroom Ricotta Tart
This savory tart is perfect for brunch or late breakfast as well as a great way to impress with your baking skills. Similar to a homemade quiche, this mushroom ricotta tart has everything you want. Buttery, flaky pie crust filled with mushrooms in a creamy rich, cheese filling made with ricotta, eggs, and milk.
A savory tart is very rare, and to be honest, I still haven't figured out why we call this one a tart while all the others are quiche.
Not long ago, I was at a French restaurant where they served individual portions of mushroom ricotta cheese tarts. So delicious. While everything looks pretty similar to my mushroom quiche this one has a sweeter crust. I think they probably used a shortcrust pastry instead of a pie crust.
So, I created this version based on my mushroom quiche and Goats cheese tart. But, I still preferred to use my savory pie crust as compared to my sweet shortcrust pastry.
About this Mushroom Ricotta Cheese Tart
Homemade quiches and tarts are always easy when you plan ahead of time. Mainly, because most of the elements can be made ahead of time. This ricotta tart is the same. You will want to cook the mushrooms separately, this will cook out all the excess liquid.
There are three components to this tart:
- The pastry shell - Whether you are using homemade pie dough or store-bought, you can prepare the tart shell up to two days ahead and keep it in the fridge well wrapped.
- The filling - Saute the mushrooms up to two days in advance and keep it in the fridge.
- The custard base - This be made up to a day in advance. And yet, considering it takes just five minutes to combine, there is no need.
- Assembly - On the day of the event - assemble and bake.
Useful tips and tools
- The pastry blender is a great tool to have if you plan to make pies often by hand.
- I love using my food processor to make any kind of pastry. It takes minutes and the butter is evenly distributed giving you a nice uniform bread crumb consistency. Never use an electric mixer as it will cream not pulse the dough.
- Also, a good set of quiche pans is a good investment if you like baking. There are many good and affordable pans, but I particularly like the ones with high sides, so I have more room for filling and moving around.
- And, a wooden barrel rolling pin makes for easy rolling, especially when working with pastry.
- Use a heavy bottom saute pan to caramelize the onions so they brown not burn easily.
- Pie weights work great when you need to blind bake a pastry. Although, you can use any baking beans like dried beans.
- My pie crust shield was a great investment so I don't have to struggle with covering the edges with foil.
- And, my kitchen timer is one tool I cannot do without. I use it the moment something goes into the oven.
Ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)
- Mushrooms - I love to use a good mix of different mushrooms - champagne, shiitake, chestnut. Having said that, often I have used only the champagne mushrooms because that's what I can get easily and at an affordable price. So, use whatever pleases you.
- Ricotta cheese - I am using a 5% ricotta cheese to keep this one light. And yet, you can also use a higher fat cream cheese.
- Parmesan cheese - Not much, but I love the nutty smoky flavor it adds to the earthy mushrooms.
- Thyme - You can use fresh, but I usually never have fresh thyme on hand unless I cooking lamb. If you use fresh, I highly recommend you use less rather than more. Since thyme can really be strong on the delicate ricotta.
- Herbs - I love cilantro, so often, my choice of the herb is cilantro. And yet, parsley works great with mushrooms as well.
- Pie crust - I am passionate about using a homemade crust for pies, tarts or my quiches. Having said that, I am guilty of using store-bought pastry, when time, is not a luxury. I know that life can get busy and things just don't work out. So, while I do use homemade 90% of the time, I always have a roll of puff pastry and shortcrust pastry tucked in the corner of my freezer. Just for that one day when - you know - I just don't have time.
How to make mushroom ricotta cheese tart (Save/Pin)
Make the Pie Crust / Pastry
Learn to make the best pie crust in my detailed step by step tutorial - Homemade Flaky Pie Crust 101
- Cut butter into cubes and keep chilled.
- Place the flour and salt in a bowl.
- Add butter to the flour and cut with a pastry blender, a fork or your hands until you have a coarse breadcrumb consistency.
- Add a few tablespoons of water until you can make a dough.
- Gather the pastry into a disc and chill in the fridge.
- Once chilled, roll into a sheet on a lightly dusted worktop.
- Drape over a rolling pin and place over a 9" Pie pan - trim off excess.
- Prick the base with the tines of a fork and let chill in the fridge while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven at 190 C / 380 F - pre-bake the quiche shell for 10 minutes or until the pastry is lightly colored.
Saute Mushrooms
- In a skillet heat oil, add garlic and onions. Saute until the onions are translucent.
- Add in the chopped mushrooms, salt, and pepper.
- Cook until the water from the mushrooms has evaporated.
- Add Chopped Parsley and set aside to cool.
Prepare the Ricotta Cheese mixture.
- In a bowl add the Ricotta, eggs, cream, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Whisk to combine.
Assemble Tart
- Combine mushrooms and Parmesan together.
- Add the mushrooms mixture to the bottom of the pre-baked tart.
- Pour the cheese mixture over the mushrooms.
- Use a fork to help the cheese mixture settle into the mushrooms.
Bake Tart
- Bake on the center rack in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes at 170 C / 340 F or until the top is set and slightly golden.
- Cool for at least 10 minutes before you cut into it.
Description
Ingredients
Single Pie Crust
- 1 ½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour
- 4 oz (113 g) Butter very cold
- 3 grams Salt
- ¼ cup Water chilled
- 1 tbsp Sugar optional
To Saute Mushrooms
- 7 oz (200 g) Mushrooms cleaned and sliced
- ¼ cup Onion chopped
- 1 tsp Garlic minced
- ¼ cup Parsley
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
Ricotta Cheese Mixture
- 8 oz (226 g) Ricotta Cheese
- ½ cup (120 ml) Whipping cream 15% or more
- ¼ cup (25 g) Parmesan Cheese grated
- 3 Eggs large
- 1 tsp Dried thyme optional
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Pepper
Instructions
Make the Pie Crust / Pastry
- Learn to make the best pie crust in my detailed step by step tutorial - Homemade Flaky Pie Crust 101
- Cut butter into cubes and keep chilled.
- Place the flour and salt in a bowl.
- Add butter to the flour and cut with a pastry blender, a fork or your hands until you have a coarse breadcrumb consistency.
- Add a few tablespoons of water until you can make a dough
- Gather the pastry into a disc and chill in the fridge.
- Once chilled roll into a sheet on a lightly dusted worktop.
- Drape over a rolling pin and place over a 9" Pie pan - trim off excess.
- Prick the base with the tines of a fork and let chill in the fridge while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 190 C/380 F -
- Line the pastry with parchment paper and add some pie weight or dried beans
- Pre-bake the quiche shell for 10 to 12 minutes or until the pastry is lightly colored
- Reduce the oven temperature to 170C/340 F
Saute Mushrooms
- In a skillet heat oil, add garlic and onions. Saute until the onions are translucent.
- Add in the chopped mushrooms, salt, and pepper.
- Cook until the water from the mushrooms has evaporated.
- Add Chopped Parsley and set aside to cool.
Prepare the Ricotta Cheese mixture.
- In a bowl add the Ricotta, eggs, cream, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Whisk to combine.
Assemble Tart
- Combine Mushrooms and Parmesan together
- Add the mushrooms mixture to the bottom of the pre-baked tart.
- Pour the Cheese mixture over the mushrooms.
- Use a fork to help the cheese mixture settle into the mushrooms
Bake Tart
- Bake on the center rack in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes at 170 C / 340 F or until the top is set and slightly golden.
- Cool for at least 10 minutes before you cut into it.
Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Frequently Asked Questions
You bet! Never be embarrassed to use store-bought pâte brisée. Just roll store-bought pie crust just as I have done with the homemade pie crust. Dock it, chill it and blind-bake just as the recipe says above.
Yes, you can. Use milk with a tablespoon of flour. The starch helps as a thickening agent, so the quiche cuts into beautiful wedges despite using milk.
For a standard 9-inch quiche a mix of 3 eggs with 1, ¼ cup liquid (milk, cream, sour cream) works perfectly. However, if the pastry crust shrinks you may find that the filling is too much. Just use as much as you need for the quiche. It's best to avoid spilling as any liquid under the quiche will make the crust soggy.
I usually serve all my quiches warm because I don't like fridge-cold quiche. Oven-hot quiche won't make impressive wedges either.
As a guide, I let the quiche cool for a good half hour before serving. The egg mixture cools just enough so it cuts into beautiful and impressive servings.
You can store any leftover quiche wrapped will in the fridge. You can heat it in the microwave, but the crust tends to get soggy.
If I have a large piece of quiche leftover, I prefer to heat it in the microwave for a minute then place it in a hot oven just until the crust gets crisp again 8 to 10 minutes.
Frozen quiche can be baked in the oven from frozen for about 45 minutes to an hour at 170 F or 350 F
The ricotta is an important ingredient but I do have a mushrooms quiche that does not use ricotta.
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