Open the refrigerator. Seriously. Open it. Do you have eggs? Cheese? Some lonely vegetable in the vegetable drawer? You’ve got a gourmet meal waiting to happen!
How does my mind work? Honestly, I don’t know. Today after I left a client’s house the hubba-hubba firemen were at the corner of Braun and 1604 holding out their boots, collecting money for their charity and I realized I hadn’t made salad dressing for my client. Firemen and salad dressing. I’ll figure that one out later. Back to the Frittata!
At yesterday’s consultation for today’s client, she mentioned that she loved quiche. Well, I love quiche too, but I often “cheat” and make it crustless. And thinking about cooking 3 meals a day for seven days in a really short 4-hour window, I wasn’t feeling up to “quiche” energy. But I wanted to incorporate an egg dish, so I thought….Frittata! (Funny, because she told me at that very moment, “I can see your brain working.”)
I love artichokes. I love parmesan. I menu planned for an artichoke heart and parmesan frittata. Yeah, well….in typical “me” fashion, one ingredient always seems to get overlooked. I didn’t buy artichokes at the grocery store on my way to my client’s house today. Come on…..I had the cornstarch packed! (See previous blog…..) (Oh, and I didn’t need cornstarch today.)
BUT….I did have extra zucchini. SO….I xxxxxxx-ed out the artichoke on her typed menu with my favorite fine-tipped sharpie marker and scribbled in “zucchini” and went on from there. (Recipe to follow.) I whipped up the eggs, poured it in the pan, and broiled it off.
I snapped a picture of the final product with my low-battery-warning cell phone that was trying to play my Pandora station inside a house where I wasn’t getting a signal (phew, run-on sentence night) of the Frittata “un-turned” and posted it on Facebook. Hours later upon returning home and charging my phone, I saw that there was an interest in learning how to make a Frittata, so here we are in blog-land.
2 serving Frittata
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 3 Tablespoons cheese (parmesan, feta, cheddar, whatcha got?)
- Sea Salt, Freshly Ground Pepper & any other dried or fresh herb you think will go well with the veggie(s): Italian dried mix, basil, thyme, mint with feta, etc.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup sliced or chopped vegetable or mixed “compatible” vegetables (artichoke hearts, zucchini, tomato, peas, scallions, red onion, yellow onion, cooked potato, basil, peppers, etc.) The vegetables will show through, so cut them nicely.
- 1-2 T minced garlic
Directions:
- Move oven rack to the highest position. Preheat broiler to “high” or 500 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in half of the cheese and fresh herbs or dried seasoning.
- Place a 6-inch nonstick frying pan with an ovenproof handle over medium-high heat on the stovetop.
- Add olive oil and spread over surface of pan.
- Add vegetable(s). Saute for about 3 minutes, or until veggies are tender and browning. Add garlic.
- Pour in egg mixture and let it sit for 1/2 minute.
- With a spatula, gently pull the edges of the egg in and tip the pan to allow the runny egg center to go under the “set” part of the egg. Do this all around the edges of the pan.
- You will still have some “oozy” center, but let it sit and walk away from the pan for 5 minutes.
- Grate the remaining cheese on top.
- Place the pan under the broiler and broil for 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown and set.
- Using an oven mitt, remove the pan from the broiler. Let it sit for a minute to set. Loosen the edges with a spatula and invert it onto a serving plate.
- Serve hot or at room temperature.
Slice into wedges. You will get two nice servings out of this recipe. Each serving is about 270 calories if you use cheese.
Enjoy!
Catherine