Spinach cheesecake

We were heading out to Kew Gardens to see the Human League and in the way of civilised drinking on a school night in the outdoors; we decided to take a picnic. Daffydos III was in charge of cheese and port, so I opted to make a spinach and ricotta cheesecake. I could carry this to the event in its own quiche dish and I was hoping it would be relatively easy to carve up and eat. So why is this not a quiche or a soufflé? Well, it’s the base. It is indeed biscuity/cakey. I dug out the box of porridge outs that have been lying in the cupboard for ages (no doubt for a previous flapjack making event) and got creative.

What you will need
120g porridge oats
50g melted butter
2 handfuls of seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or mixed)
50g cheddar
30g parmesan (or another strong hard cheese)
200g wilted spinach
250g of ricotta
2 tea spoons of Dijon or English mustard
Nutmeg
3 eggs

Starting with the base, melt the butter and add to the porridge oats and seeds. Grate in the cheddar to the mix and pat down in your buttered quiche dish or cake tin. Bake this in the oven for 20 minutes at 220 degrees to crisp up the base.

Whilst it is cooking, blend the spinach, ricotta, parmesan, mustard and eggs together with a grating of nutmeg. Season the mix well with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Once the base has crisped up, add the filling and return to the over for a further 30-40 minutes.

I would normally serve this with a salad. It’s a great lunch time or picnic dish as it can be eaten cold, but is also great straight from the oven steaming hot. In winter I might be inclined to serve it with some garlic and herb roasted new potatoes.

We had new potato salad dressed in my leftover rocket and parsley pesto and fresh lemon juice.