You know what uses up a ton of eggs, is healthy, versatile, and tastes good cold, at room temp, or warm? The fritatta.
Get 8 eggs and your big cast iron skillet. Turn your oven on to 350 and heat up your skillet on the stove over medium-high.
Whisk your eggs with a half-cup of dairy stuff. I go half-milk, half-cream. You do you. Season that shitnit up. Salt, pepper. Maybe a little cayenne if you’re feeling sassy. Got some fresh herbs? Great! Add em.
Fully whisk the eggs, but don’t immersion blend or anything – if you get too much air in your eggs, they think they are becoming a souffle and get very depressed later when they realize that’s not their life path.
Depressed eggs have bad texture.
Is your pan hot yet? Good, pour some olive oil in there. Add in some veg. I like zucchini, but the sky’s the limit. Onion, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, chard – it’s all good. Potatoes are traditional. Maybe not beets. Your frittata will look bloody.
You can do meat too – like sausage or bacon – but I tend to go for veggie frittatas.
Cook your veg and remember to season. You can’t ask your eggs to season your vegetables. That’s your job, not theirs.
When your veggies are soft, pour off any water that’s in your skillet. Water will make your eggs think they are being poached and…well…depressed eggs. We’ve been down this path.
Add more oil if your pan looks dry. It’s olive oil, it’s healthy. Pour in the eggs. Throw some cheese in there too if you want. Feta makes it betta.
Give the eggs a few swirls around the pan right at the beginning. Pretend like you’re scrambling eggs while on quaaludes and then lose interest.
The idea is just to get the eggs firmed up enough that the yummy veggie and cheese stuff doesn’t all sink to the bottom, but not to stir so much that the eggs think they are being scrambled and have an identity crisis.
When your eggs start to set on the edge, don’t touch them any more. Let them cook for couple minutes until that edge around the pan starts to look nice and brown. Pop the whole pan in the oven and cook until the eggs stop jiggling in the center if you shake the pan. This’ll take a few minutes. Maybe ten.
Remove your skillet from the oven.
Get your frittata out of the skillet through incantations and magic.
Just kidding.
Put a big heat-proof plate or sheetpan upside-down on top of your skillet, put one hand on the downside-up bottom of the plate and another (well protected with a side towel or oven mitt) on the bottom of your skillet.
Hold your hands out like you are using your arms to imitate a crocodile eating a skillet and a plate, and then invert everything in one ballsy motion.
Your skillet should end up upside-down on top of the plate, which is now right-side up. Now just carefully pull the skillet straight up and the frittata should remain behind on the plate. If it sticks, the skillet gods are gently suggesting you work on your cast iron seasoning.
This is easier to do than it is to read, I promise.
If you wanna do like me, make a tangy vinaigrette with tons of chopped parsley and basil and dribble that over your slice of frittata. Look! It’s like an Egg Angel!
Voila! Versatile, easy, almost instant deliciousness.
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OMG! You are killing me this morning. Will definitely be making a frittata this weekend. Anything that I can start and then walk away from like I’m on quaaludes and lost interest, is right up my cooking alley!
Thanks for the dinner suggestion for Saturday!
Barb
I like leftover pasta in my frittata (with or without sauce), or leftover dressed salad, especially if it had a balsamic based dressing on it. I usually add vegetables too.
I made a bunch of frittatas when we were working on using up the last of the ground venison out of our freezer (you can only do tacos and meatloaf so many ways). And they are such a great lunch to take into work the next day. We just picked up a 1/4 cow so now I think I know what I’ll be doing with some of that ground beef 🙂
I love your writing, sassypants. And the frittata looks good too!
This blog post made my whole day. Please keep writing!
Just made for lunch… yum yum yum!! Bell pepper, broccoli, zucchini. Seasoned with adobo and thyme. Dotted on chèvre before popping in oven. Scaled up for large skillet to a dozen eggs, 12 minutes in oven. Served hot on a bed of crisp greens, drizzled with EVOO and salted lemon juice from my preserved lemons. SO easy, SO tasty. And looks mighty fancy…
This was so fun to read. Plus, now I know how to make a frittata. Mine always had identity crises and ended up as scrambled eggs… thanks!
This is, hands-down, the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read on the internet. I have bookmarked it for future use as an antidepressant.
Seriously, thank you SOOOOO much!
This looks amazing!! Can a frittata be frozen for a later time! I have so much zuchinni that I’m thinking I use it in a recipe like this to freeze for later date!