Sausage, Salami and Cheese Tart

I’ve had this recipe quite a while. I recognize it from Bon Appetit, which was my favorite food magazine. The cut-and-paste method was my way to save recipes. Until computers, of course.

As you can see, I thought the recipe was very good, but I needed to add onions and garlic to the tart next time. That time never came until now; I decided to substitute mozzarella with fontina, and make a couple of minor adaptations.

Sausage, Salami and Cheese Tart
Printable recipe below

1 refrigerated pie crust, at room temperature
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 ounces Italian sweet sausages, casings removed
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
5 ounces finely chopped Fontina
3 ounces diced Italian salami, such as Genoa
4 ounces grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup cream
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Unfold crust on work surface. Press together any cracks in dough to seal crust. Place crust in 9” diameter tart pan with removable bottom; fold in excess dough and press, forming double-thick sides that extend about 1/4” above rim of pan.

I used a 10” deep-dish pie pan. From all of the comments on this recipe online, the egg and cream mixture overflowed, so I wanted to avoid that mess. Plus I chilled the crust first.

Pierce crust with fork. Bake crust 5 minutes; press with back of fork if crust bubbles up. Continue to bake until crust is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Meanwhile, add the olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat, and sauté the sausage with the onions and garlic pepper. Break up the sausage so that there aren’t any large pieces. Lower the heat if necessary; you don’t want much browning.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage and onion to a bowl and allow to cool. Add the fontina, salami, Parmesan, and basil to the sausage mixture. Toss gently to combine. Then gently place in the prepared crust.

Beat eggs, cream, nutmeg and white pepper together to blend, then pour the custard over the sausage and cheese mixture in crust. I was so smart and made the pie pan larger so all of the egg and cream mixture would fit and not leak, but I was using my left hand for my “pouring” shot, which already isn’t coordinated, but with the help of recent surgery… a significant amount was poured in between the pie pan and crust. See it?!!

Bake tart until filling is set in the center and golden brown on top, about 30 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes and serve. Fortunately, despite the leakage, the pie sliced well.

Depending when you make this tart, serve with a tomato salad, or a simple green salad.

Or an arugula and tomato salad!

If you don’t have any fresh basil on hand, you can thin some basil pesto with olive oil and drizzle it over the baked tart or on the serving plates.