Fresh & Fast Frittatas

Last week, I found myself at 4 p.m. with no plans for dinner and a pop-in dinner guest. The guest was my oldest daughter’s boyfriend and not a complicated person to feed, but still, I had no dinner ideas. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Coincidentally, this same evening, my mother found herself with an abundance of produce, due to an online grocery order mishap. She knocked on my door with a head of broccoli and a package of zucchini.

I had been to the farmers market earlier in the week, and had purchased some lovely new potatoes that also needed to be used. Now my brain started to kick in and I took to the internet to spur it on even more.

I found some recipes for Frittata – a simple, hearty egg dish made with whatever you have on hand. It is different than a quiche because it has no crust, and different than an omelette because the ingredients are cooked into the egg, rather than folded in the middle. It also serves up to 8 people. Ah ha! Dinner now had a design.

Frittata is Italian in origins, in fact, the word is a loose translation of the Italian word for “fried.” It is a a simple home dish, made up of the staples eggs and cream and embellished with whatever you have on hand that needs to be used up. It is often a spur of the moment dish, quickly whipped up with odds and ends – exactly what I needed that night.

TheKitchn.com has a simple equation that I started with for my first Frittata. They recommend that for every 6 eggs, you add 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1 cup cheese, and 2 cups total of veggies and meat, if you chose to use meat. They also recommend a cast iron skillet, which I am ever-increasingly happy to use.

So, I set out to make my first Frittata using bacon, broccoli, onions, new potatoes and zucchini. I used sharp white cheddar. Because I have a larger cast iron skillet at 12”, instead of 10”, and I was serving 5 instead of our usual party of 4, I doubled the equation, using 12 eggs, 2 cups of cheese, 4 cups combined of veggies, potatoes and bacon and 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

You simply sauté the veggies and meat in the cast iron skillet, push them all into a flat, even layer, top with cheese, then pour on the eggs, which have been whisked together with the heavy cream. Pop the skillet into the oven and bake for 14-15 minutes, or until cooked through.

The first attempt was delicious. It may have been a little puffier than your average Frittata because it was doubled, but it was extremely satisfying. Alas, I took no photos because it was about feeding the masses more than blogging that evening.

We liked it so much, in fact, it made me want to make it again this week, varying the equation a tad, as I am known to do. This time I used farm fresh eggs from my friend’s chickens, Monterey Jack cheese, a mixture of farmers market veggies, including zucchini, new potatoes, red peppers and onions. Sadly, we were completely out of bacon, so I used ham to add a nice salty protein.

I used 8 lovely eggs and 1/2 cup of heavy cream and about 3 cups of veggies and meat combined, and 1 1/2 cups cheese. It filled my skillet nicely and still had a great balance of flavors.

It will be puffy when you first remove it from the oven, but once it cools for 5 minutes, it settles into place.

The beauty of this delicious dish is it’s flexibility. You can vary the cheese, the vegetable choice and the meat, or leave out the meat altogether. You can add in fresh summer herbs while cooking or sprinkled some on after cooking along with fresh tomatoes and green onions. Some Italians even use leftover pasta, with or without sauce, in their Frittatas. The more leftovers you use, the less work you have in prepping your dish.

If you do not have a cast iron skillet, you can use an oven-safe skillet but be sure to add enough butter while sautéing the veggies to prevent the dish from sticking in the bottom of the pan, or use bacon grease if choosing to use bacon.

There is also a method of cooking Frittatas directly on the stove top, but to do this successfully, you must be able to flip the whole thing in the pan. I am not a great flipper myself, but if you wish to try this method, you can use a flat dish or lid to flip the Frittata out of the pan and then gently slide it back into the pan topside down. You can also chose to keep the Frittata in the pan and set the whole thing into the broiler briefly to finish cooking off the top. But again, be sure your pan in oven-safe.

However you chose to cook your Frittata or whatever you put in it, they are delicious served warm or room temperature. If you do not eat it all the day you make it, I would boldly say they are maybe even more delicious the next day.

Frittatas can be dinner, but just as easily can be served as breakfast, brunch or lunch. Serve it along some fruit, a green salad or with some steamed veggies. Some have even suggested eating a wedge on some toast, like a open-faced sandwich.

So, if you find yourself in a dinner pinch, all you need is some eggs, cream, cheese and veggies and you can make your very own gastronomic masterpiece.