New year, new quiche! That could be the motto for today's recipe, which offers a special blend of salty and sweet flavors. After all the hearty dishes around the Christmas holidays, it's now time to welcome the new year with a lighter creation. Which naturally plays a major role in terms of flavor!
That's why today we're making the Stichelton-Membrillo Quiche with nutty Hokkaido pumpkin by Yotam Ottolenghi. The Israeli-British chef became world-famous for his beautiful cookbooks, in which he combines traditional Israeli cuisine with other influences. We've adapted the recipe slightly and created our own version.

Ingredients:
- 1 medium Hokkaido pumpkin (approx. 700 g)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 250 g quiche pastry
- 200 g Stichelton
- 75 g membrillo (quince fruit preserve, available in our shop)
- 3 eggs (available in our shop)
- 300 ml crème épaisse (available in our shop)
- Some butter for the baking dish
- Fleur de Sel
- Piment d’Espelette
- Pepper (e.g. Voatsipériféry, available in our shop)
- Chickpeas (for blind baking the quiche pastry)

Preparation:
- First, line a buttered baking dish with the quiche pastry. Then prick the entire base of the pastry several times with a fork and spread a packet of chickpeas over it. The purpose of the chickpeas is to prevent bubbles from forming when pre-baking the pastry. This process is called "blind baking".
- Bake the pastry with the chickpeas for approx. 20 min at 160°C, remove from the oven, remove the chickpeas and let cool.
- Meanwhile, cut the Hokkaido pumpkin into small cubes (with the skin!) and spread them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle some olive oil over the pumpkin and add a pinch of Fleur de Sel.
- Bake the pumpkin for approx. 30 min at 160°C and let it cool slightly.
- Cut the Stichelton and membrillo into small cubes as best as possible.
- In a bowl, thoroughly mix the eggs, the crème épaisse, 1 tsp Piment d’Espelette and a pinch of salt.
- Now spread the roasted pumpkin, Stichelton and membrillo over the pre-baked pastry. Then pour the mixture of eggs and crème épaisse over it and spread it evenly over the quiche.
- Bake the quiche for 40 minutes at 160°C. Then let it cool slightly and serve lukewarm or cold.


For the Stichelton-Pumpkin-Membrillo Quiche, we have three wine recommendations:
- Espumante Soalheiro: fruity white wine with a nice balance between acidity and alcohol.
- Quinta do Ameal: refreshing and beautifully mineral white wine.
- Les Darrons: a dry, light and fruity red wine.
But you can also drink tea with it, as you can see ...
Click here for the print-friendly PDF version.
And here you can find all the ingredients at a glance.
Photos and text by Christian Kuhn // www.image-01.com
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The original recipe comes from the Ottolenghi food blog. We've adapted it slightly for our purposes.