Tuna & Broccoli Pie

I was looking for some kind of tuna rice casserole recipe when I ran across this Broccoli and Tuna Rice Pie, and it looked so good I just had to try it.  It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it reminded me of the eggs my dad always made when I was growing up.  His didn't include rice or broccoli, just eggs, tuna, and cheese baked in a cast iron skillet.  So good!  (Why don't I make that once in a while?)

Anyway, we had this the other night for dinner, and it was really good.  The leftovers tonight were even better!

Tuna & Broccoli Pie

Ingredients:

•  1 to 2 T butter
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 T dried chives
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 can tuna, drained
• 8 oz. broccoli florets (if frozen, run under water to thaw)
• 1/2 cup grated Mozzarella
• 8 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Melt 1 T butter over medium heat.  Add onion and saute with basil and chives until onion is translucent.  Add more butter if needed as onion is cooking.
3. Turn off heat and stir in rice, tuna, and broccoli; add cheese.  Spoon mixture into greased deep dish pie pan.
4. Whisk together eggs and milk; season with salt and pepper.  Pour over rice mixture. Shake dish to settle eggs and remove any air bubbles.
5. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. If necessary, cover with foil if the top starts to brown too much.   Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes; Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves 4

I baked this in my cast iron skillet, because I used it to saute the onion and I figured it could go in the oven, so why dirty another dish.  And because my dad always baked his eggs in a skillet.  BUT, I won't be doing that again.  The cleanup was harder than I expected.  Maybe my skillet just isn't seasoned properly... but usually I can just scrub it out with a bit of salt and this time I had to do some soaking and a lot more scrubbing.  So, next time I'm using a pie pan.

Since there are only two of us, we ate half of this for dinner one night and then I heated it up again for dinner tonight.  For the leftovers, I heated it at 350° for 15 minutes covered and then I removed the cover and heated for an additional 15 minutes.  And then I added just a touch more cheese to the top and left it in the oven just long enough to melt it.  I'm not sure what the reheating did, but this was even better the second time.  The bottom and edges of the already cut wedges crisped up a bit, and the flavors had blended better.  We really enjoyed it.  Oh, and a little hot sauce on top is good, too.