This Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes is a savory cheese custard, a perfect elegant appetizer and make-ahead starter.
A luscious spoonful
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Parmigiano Reggiano, the King of Cheeses, takes center stage in this delicate savory flan. Until I tasted this delicate cheese custard at a restaurant, I thought Parmigiano was mainly used as a finishing touch for pasta, risotto, soups, salads, and other Italian dishes. Here, its aged, nutty, fruity flavor and exceptional melting quality create a refined custard that makes the cheese the main event. It works beautifully as a refined appetizer, lunch starter, or side dish. It can be prepared ahead and served warm or at room temperature.
About Parmigiano Reggiano
Parmigiano Reggiano, a natural cow’s milk cheese, is a cornerstone of Italian cuisine. It is the very definition of umami: a true flavor bomb. https://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/baked-pasta-with-spinach-tomatoes-and-bacon/ Parmigiano’s rich, nutty flavor adds indispensable saltiness and creaminess to countless dishes. It improves texture with a satisfying crunch and creaminess. It is versatile as a grating cheese, a topping, or in thin slices as an antipasto, paired with cured meats, pears or figs, wines such as Chianti, Prosecco, or aged Barolo, or simply served in a chunk with a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar.
Parmigiano Reggiano has been made in northern Italy since the Middle Ages, when monks developed long-aged cheeses to preserve milk. Over time, trade from Emilia-Romagna carried Parmigiano beyond Italy, and by the Renaissance it had become prized in European kitchens, including France. https://www.italyfoodhistory.com/2025/02/the-origins-of-parmigiano-reggiano.html
Food writer Giuliano Bugialli captures its importance succinctly in The Fine Art of Italian Cooking*: What can one say in praise of Parmigiano? Not only Italian cooking, but French cooking as well could not exist without it.
Marcella Hazan states in Marcella Cucina**: Parmigiano delivers into the mouth the richest sensation of any hard cheese, immediately fragrant and deeply layered in flavor, with a bracing, faintly bitter backtaste like that of apricot or peach pits. It has unequaled melting properties that seamlessly bond the cheese to any ingredient with which it is cooked.
Savory Flan vs. Sformato: Why Parmigiano Works So Well in Flan
Flan, an egg-and-dairy custard baked in a bain-marie, is a perfect vehicle for Parmigiano’s umami qualities: saltiness, richness, creaminess, fragrant flavor, and superior melting capacity. Sweet flans, associated with Spain and Latin America, are often flavored with vanilla, orange, or coffee and topped with caramel. A savory flan like this Parmigiano Reggiano flan is different: it is a cheese-flavored egg-and-cream custard with a smooth, silky texture and no sugar. Here, the cheese is not a finishing touch; it is the central flavor.
In searching for the perfect Parmigiano flan recipe, I stumbled on a sformato recipe, Sformato di Besciamella, from renowned Italian chef Ada Boni in Italian Regional Cooking.*** With ingredients similar to those in flan, both dishes belong naturally to the culinary world of Emilia-Romagna, home of Parmigiano Reggiano. Unlike most sformati, which are blends of puréed vegetables combined with eggs and béchamel, this recipe features only cheese but calls for a “stiff” flour-based béchamel, combined with eggs to ensure structure, stability, and a smooth texture. The flour in the béchamel gives the sformato a firmer texture than the egg-and-dairy combination gives a savory flan.
This Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes recipe lets the cheese’s full flavor shine and is flour-free. I opted for the more delicate flan rather than the denser sformato, serving the vegetables alongside instead of incorporating them into the flan.
This Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes is delectable and tender throughout, forming no crust. In this recipe, structure, stability, smoothness, and thickness are achieved solely through the right balance of eggs and dairy, without flour or starch, along with controlled, gentle cooking temperatures.
This impressive little dish is ideal as an individual antipasto or contorno. Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes makes a sophisticated lunch starter with a colorful side salad, or a refined dinner partner for meat, fish, or vegetarian dishes. It also adapts easily to the season: cherry tomatoes, pesto, and basil in late summer; sage leaves briefly fried in butter, marinara sauce, or roasted vegetables in fall; and new asparagus in spring. In some Emilia-Romagna villages, it is served as a main course with tiny pork meatballs and peas.
This Parmigiano Reggiano Flan is quick and easy to make from simple pantry ingredients. Its practical advantage is that it stores well in the refrigerator for several days and can be prepared ahead. Although I prepared this version in ramekins as individual servings, it also can be baked in a larger dish and served as a crustless quiche.
This Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes presents beautifully in the colors of the Italian flag. Its silky texture, tart cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil ribbons, dotted with basil oil, create a balanced, sumptuous bite. It is best served slightly warm, when the Parmigiano flavor, softened by the cream, is most pronounced.
Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Tomatoes
Servings: 4 to 6 individual flans
Prep time: about 25 minutes
Cook time: 30 to 35 minutes
Make ahead: Prepare up to 1 day in advance and refrigerate, covered.
Ingredients
10.75 ounces (200 ml) heavy cream (35% fat)
4 ounces (113 g) Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, plus extra for ramekins
3 large eggs, room temperature
3 large egg yolks, room temperature
⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Ground white pepper, to taste
0.5 ounce (10 g) unsalted butter, for greasing ramekins
Steps
Prepare the ramekins: Heat the oven to 320ºF (160ºC). Generously butter 4 to 6 ramekins, each about 5 to 6 ounces (150 ml), then dust the insides with finely grated Parmigiano, tipping out any excess. (Because my ramekins were a bit smaller than 6 ounces, I buttered an extra ramekin for the leftover custard.) Place ramekins in a roasting pan large and deep enough to hold them and an inch of water without touching. Set aside. Bring a kettle of water to boil for the water bath.
Preparing ramekins with butter and grated Parmigiano
Make the custard: Pour cream into a small saucepan and warm over medium-low heat until it reaches a gentle simmer, about 175ºF (80ºC). Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in the grated Parmigiano until fully melted and smooth. Keep custard warm by placing the saucepan into a bowl with 1 inch of hot water.
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and egg whites together until combined. Slowly pour the warm Parmigiano cream into the eggs, whisking constantly to temper eggs and prevent scrambling. Stir in nutmeg and white pepper. Because Parmigiano varies in saltiness, taste the mixture before adding salt. (The mixture should taste cheesy, salty, and peppery; it will taste slightly less salty once set.)
Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup to smooth the texture and remove any coagulated egg.
Ramekins filled with custard
Bake the flan: Pour the custard into the prepared ramekins, filling each about three-quarters full, then place the ramekins in the baking pan. Pull the hot oven rack halfway out of the oven. Place the baking pan on the oven rack and carefully pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Flans baking in waterbath
Slide rack carefully into oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until custard is just set at the edges but still jiggles slightly in the center when gently shaken. (The surface should just start to color.)
Baked flans cooling
Remove the ramekins from the water bath and place them on a wire rack to cool. The flans can be served warm or at room temperature. They can also be covered with plastic wrap and stored overnight in the refrigerator.
If garnishing with roasted cherry tomatoes, prepare the garnish from the recipe below and keep the tomatoes at room temperature until plating. Chiffonade six large basil leaves, prepare basil oil, and set both aside.
If refrigerated overnight, remove flans from the refrigerator on the day of serving and bring them to room temperature. If you wish to serve them slightly warm, place a baking tray over two stovetop burners set on low. Pour 1 inch of boiling water into the tray, set the ramekins in the pan, and keep them in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes before unmolding onto warm plates.
To unmold, run a thin knife around the inside edge of each ramekin, place a plate face-down on top, and invert firmly in one motion. The flan should be released cleanly.
Serve immediately with roasted cherry tomatoes, basil oil, basil chiffonade, or another garnish of your choice.
Parmigiano Reggiano Flan with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
How to Roast Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh tomatoes and roasted tomatoes
2 pints (680 – 907 g), depending on the size/variety) cherry tomatoes on branches
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation: Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Roasting: Gently toss tomatoes with the oil, vinegar, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper until evenly coated. Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, or until softened. Remove tomatoes from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet until ready to serve.
How to Make Basil Oil
This herb-infused olive oil is easy to make with three ingredients: fresh basil leaves for herbaceous flavor and vibrant green color, good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for a rich, full-bodied base, and a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor.
Basil oil ingredients
A few drops of basil oil add taste, aroma, and a beautiful accent to this Parmigiano Reggiano flan and many other dishes.
½ cup fresh basil leaves (not dried basil)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
Prepare an ice bath by adding a cupful of ice and ½ cup water to a small bowl. Set aside.
Blanch basil leaves in a small saucepan of boiling water for 20 seconds. Remove leaves with a slotted spoon and place them in an ice bath for 1 minute. Remove them from the ice bath, squeeze out the water, and dry thoroughly on paper towels.
Place basil leaves in a blender or food processor. Add olive oil and salt, then blend until liquefied.
Once blended smooth, pour basil oil into a glass jar or oil dispenser and enjoy. This oil will be unfiltered with suspended basil particles.
For a filtered basil oil, strain the processed oil through a fine-mesh strainer over a measuring cup, pressing gently with a spoon so that clear oil flows into the cup below.
Basil oil
Basil oil, whether filtered or unfiltered, should be stored in a lidded glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. For longer storage, pour the oil into ice cube trays to freeze individual portions. Once frozen, transfer cubes to a zip-top freezer bag for longer storage.
*Giuliano Bugialli, The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, NYT Times Books, 1979.
**Marcella Hazan, Marcella Cucina, Harper Collins Publishers, 1997.
***Ada Boni, Italian Regional Cooking, Bonanza Books, New York, 1969.
Photo credits: All photos: Slava Johnson
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