Prosciutto Egg Tarts -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Summer may be winding down, but there still plenty of opportunities for gatherings and Sunday brunches on the deck. We often make Omelet Muffins for such occasions, though they are simple enough to make just for ourselves. 

Here's our original Omelet Muffins and a Spinach Prusciutto variation. 

So when Mr. Right spotted this variation, which uses prosciutto to line the muffin tins, rather than in the filling, we said “mmm.” And after we made it, “MMM.”

It’s also highly flexible – create a filling based on what you like or have on hand. I’ve given a couple of variations below. We served them with leftover Rosemary Garlic Focaccia. Perfecto!

Prosciutto Egg Tarts (adapted from Country Living magazine)

For a cooked vegetable filling:

1 tablespoon butter

½ shallot, minced 

4 cups baby spinach, chopped

For an uncooked vegetable filling:

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced

3-4 mushrooms, washed and chopped

2-3 green onions, sliced

6 large eggs

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 slices prosciutto

1-½ cup grated cheddar, Monterey Jack, or Swiss cheese, or feta

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray or butter a 12-cup muffin tin. 

If you’re making a cooked filling, melt the butter and saute the shallot, 1-2 minutes. Add the chopped spinach and stir, cooking lightly, 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat. 

Whisk together the eggs, cream, and seasoning. Line the muffin cups with prosciutto; don’t worry about gaps. Spoon your filling – cooked or raw – into the cups. Pour egg mixture evenly over the filling. Top with cheese. 

Bake until slightly puffed and golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 12 muffins or tarts. 

Whatever variation you choose, enjoy with people you love in a place you love!

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2023, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2023. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.