Weeknight Cooking:
Ricotta, Ham and Scallion Tart

So easy, so fast, and potentially so diverse in ingredients, the simple tart is a nice find for the expanding recipe box.  In essence, a tart recipe includes a crust and a filling of egg, cheese and cream.

For any one ingredient that this particular recipe calls for, I could easily see swapping it for something that suits the cook's taste (scallions, for example, could become asparagus without an ounce of trouble). This one calls for a fluted 9-inch tart pan, greased, to be lined with a refrigerated tube of pizza crust.  The pizza crust is massaged into the creases of the pan and rolled up over the ends as high as wanted, but remembering that the exposed crust above the pan will darken the quickest (I eventually placed aluminum foil over the edges so not to blacken).  Whisk 1/4 cup ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup heavy cream and an egg together; mince at least two scallions (optional, other stalk greens); add ricotta mix along

with parsley and a pinch of dill.  Meanwhile prepare diced ham however convenient.  I like to leave ham thickly diced and brown it well, sometimes with a touch of brown sugar, or even a splash of orange for zest.  Add the ham to the ricotta cheese mixture, lay into the prepared pizza crust pan and

set into 425 oven for 20 minutes, depending, again, on the color of the crust.  What really steals the show in this recipe are two things: the pizza crust in a pan becomes very fluffy and reminds you of the same sort of texture as deep dish pizza.  The other is the good ham suspended in all that ricotta cheese.  If thought of as something like pizza, then, this tart recipe could easily seen as a sausage tart, or pepperoni tart...or maybe no meat at all, but instead seasoned eggplant, zucchini, whatever. As long as there is the crust, the cheese, the egg, the cream, all should be well after 20 minutes.