Gourmet Brunch=Success!

This month for gourmet club the hostess decided on a brunch. Chello, I am ok with that. The theme was squash and that also turned out to be a great idea. Just think of it-freshly baked, cooked, and prepared zucchini, pumpkin, turban squash, every kind of squash, etc... Super yum. The women turned squash into cinnamon rolls, frittata, flan, wrapped them in prosciutto with dipping sauces, pan fried them with spices, oh the yummy-ness!

Here's what I made this month (and it actually made it there this time, hooray!)

A zucchini and ricotta galette
(pardon the un-gourmet-ness of this presentation ;)

Here's the recipe because you should prolly make it. It was really, really good. I did my own little adaptation, but I'll just give you the pure and unaltered recipe and you can put your own twist on it :)

Zucchini, Squash, and Ricotta Galette

Recipe type: Vegetarian main course

From: Naturally Ella

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 2 oz cream cheese, chilled
• 1/4-1/2 cup of ice water
• Filling:
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium yellow summer squash
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 tablespoon honey (I used agave nectar)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (I used rosemary)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1/4 cup mozzarella
• Egg Wash:
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon water
• Topping:
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• fresh basil

Instructions

1. In a food processor (or a medium bowl) combine flour and salt for crust. Pulse (or cut) in butter. Once butter is mostly into small chunks, pulse (or cut) in cream cheese. (On a side note- I really love using a food processor to make this dough- less mess!) Once butter and cream cheese are in pea size pieces, pulse in 1/4 cup of water until dough begins to come together (adding a 1 tablespoon of water extra as needed.) Remove from food processor and shape into a disc (without handling the dough too much.) Wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator.
2. To make the filling, spread zucchini and squash onto several layers of paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and let drain for 30 minutes. After that time, gently blot the zucchini and squash- set aside.
3. For the ricotta mixture, whisk together ricotta, egg white, garlic, honey, thyme, and cheeses- set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 400˚.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie dough out to a 12-14″ circle and transfer to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper (you can also do an ungreased baking sheet but it wasn’t easy to remove the final product.) Spread the ricotta filling evenly over the pie crust, leaving a 2″ border around the edge. Next, evenly arrange the zucchini/squash into an overlapping pattern on top of the ricotta filling. Fold over the edges of the crust, pleating as needed to make and even circle.
6. Combine the egg yolk/water and brush the outer edge of the crust. Drizzle olive oil on top of the zucchini/squash and place in oven.
7. Bake galette until crust is golden brown and the cheese has puffed- somewhere between 35-45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with basil. Cut into wedges and serve. (this is great hot, room temp, or even straight from the refrigerator as a leftover!)