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When we rely less on recipes and more on cooking methods, we buy fewer ingredients, waste less food and alleviate what-on-earth-will-we-eat-for-dinner-tonight stress. My kids sometimes complain we have nothing to eat (translation: we have no processed snacks) but when I look in the kitchen, I see possibilities. Frittata is a great example.
For this post, I searched in the fridge for vegetables that needed to be eaten asap. A leek and a bit of cauliflower were at the top of the list. I also found a handful of mushrooms, an orange bell pepper and parsley. You can add shredded cheese, homemade ricotta cheese or grated Parmesan; leftover meat, chicken, fish or seafood; leftover cooked rice; olives or capers; and even fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi. If you need to use it up, make frittata!
I cook my frittata in a cast-iron enameled pan that can go from the stovetop to the oven. If you don’t have a pan like this or a cast-iron skillet, you could use a glass pie dish, skip the stovetop and bake the frittata in the oven.
Ingredients
- About 3 cups of filling, mostly chopped vegetables
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup full-fat milk (fat is good; fat tastes good)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fat for sautéing vegetables
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to broil. Whisk 6 eggs in a bowl with a fork until you no longer see any clear bits of egg white. (Use a larger bowl than I did for this…)
2. Whisk 1/2 cup of milk into the eggs and season with salt and pepper.
3. At medium–high heat, sauté the vegetables you will add to the frittata for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have released much of their water. Do not skip this step! You want the water released in your pan, not in your eggs. I sautéed my vegetables in my homemade lard for frugal bonus points (and also because lard tastes delicious).
4. Toss in any other add-ins such as chopped meat, seafood, cheese or cooked rice.
5. Pour the egg–milk mixture over the filling. Cook on the stove top for about 4 minutes.
6. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for another 4 minutes or so, until the center is barely set like a custard. You don’t want it to brown on top. If it browns, you’ve cooked it a too long and risk a dry frittata. (Mine is a little brown on the left edge.)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Frittata
Ingredients
- About 3 cups of filling, mostly chopped vegetables
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup full-fat milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fat for sautéing vegetables
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to broil. Whisk 6 eggs in a bowl with a fork until you no longer see any clear bits of egg white.
2. Whisk 1/2 cup of milk into the eggs and season with salt and pepper.
3. At medium–high heat, sauté the vegetables you will add to the frittata for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have released much of their water.
4. Toss in any other add-ins such as chopped meat, seafood, cheese or cooked rice.
5. Pour the egg–milk mixture over the filling. Cook on the stove top for 4 or 5 minutes.
6. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for about 4 minutes more, until the center is barely set like a custard.