Bacon Onion and Cheese Torte

This morning I was watching Food Network and Giada was making a Pancetta and Parmesan Torte. While I was watching I thought that I should make something similar and use my new torte dish that I got for my birthday.

Originally I was going to try to make the same torte which Giada had made, but once I got to the grocery store and saw that I would have to buy much larger portions of pancetta and parmesan then I needed, I opted to go with bacon and a blend of italian cheeses. I also decided to add a sauted onion and some garlic to the other ingredients of parsley, salt, pepper, and cream. For the cream, I wanted to make this a little healthier so I used 1/2 cup of half and half (in place of the 2/3 cup heavy cream) and 1/2 cup skim milk (in place of the 1/2 cup whole milk).

The trick to making this torte super easy is that the base is a store bought pie crust. In a smaller sized torte pan the crust would have come up to the top edge, but my dish is pretty big and the pie crust just fit. Everything worked out alright since the amount of filling was also meant for a smaller dish so it wasn't too thick either.

Even with the reduction of fat in the liquids, the torte came out perfectly. The flavors are all very mild and blend well together. I cooked the onions and garlic over very low heat for about 10 minutes and that really took away their bite. I'm usually not a fan of onions but these came out very soft and slightly sweet.

I think this would also work really well in an individual size, served with a salad, or even smaller sized as an appetizer. I'll be keeping this recipe on file.