A Last-Minute Saturday Morning Frittata
It hasn’t been much of a cooking week for me; we’ve been in a celebratory mood, eating out day after day, going out to ice cream every other night. Other than my no-bake baking for Valentine’s Day, I’ve barely stepped foot into the kitchen- and yesterday, when I was going to try, The Boyfriend whipped up some multi-grain blueberry pancakes for me while I was out at pilates. He set the bar high… so I had to come up with something new for Saturday morning brunch.
I slept in late, and we both woke up hungry, so there was no time to spare for one of my long, meandering trips to the grocery store or farmer’s market. I had to make do with the little I had on hand. Luckily, I had the makings of a frittata… something I’d never made before, of course, but how hard could it be?
Turns out, a little. But only because my arms were so tired from pilates and my cast iron skillet weighs a TON.
ORANGE PEPPER & RED ONION FRITTATA
INGREDIENTS:
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
4 tablespoons olive oil
5 eggs
1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
basil, parsley and oregano, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Heat half of the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet, add the onions and sautee until golden, stirring regularly. Add the peppers, cooking until tender. Toss with salt and pepper, then drain off the excess oil in a colander. Set aside to cool. Wipe our the skillet, getting it ready for use again.
Meanwhile, whisk 5 eggs together with salt and pepper to taste. (I am a well-documented pepper fiend, so I just add pepper until I can see it distinctly… so I don’t really have an accurate measurement system going- maybe, three shakes of the pepper container?). Stir in the cheese, spices (a few shakes a piece), and the vegetables.
Turn on your broiler and heat the remaining olive oil in your cast iron skillet, adding the egg mixture when hot. Cooking over medium heat, let the bottom set. When the bottom of the eggs are set, remove the entire skillet to your broiler and let the flames cook the top.
In our oven, the broiling took about 2 minutes, but our oven is not strong.
Use a spatula to loosen the sides, cut and serve.
A great start to the weekend, in deed. (And look how pretty that bacon turned out… I’m getting better at this, I really am!)
As someone who loves stiff eggs, without a bit of runny, but with all of their flavor, it was the ideal egg dish: savory and rich, while still being light and fluffy. The Boyfriend was impressed.
My thanks, as always, to Joy of Cooking for helping me through this new challenge.
