This amazing dish is the first meal I ever made with my new
Anolon anodised frying pan. It is delicious - the
frittata is thick, and crammed with delectable goodies that everyone will share.
This dish is also DEAD EASY to make and is impressive enough to show off to both your workmates and your fiancée's family...
Serves four.
Hardware required:
- Stove - I LOVE GAS STOVES. You just don't get the control needed with electric stoves
- Grill - hopefully your stove has one, maybe built in to your oven?
- A BIG frying pan - the spinach you'll use alone takes up a big portion of the pan, so you'll also want it to be a deep one if you've got it.
- Cutting board and knives
Essential Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, thinly sliced - you can use red onion for a bit of zing and colour
- 2 zucchini, sliced - this is plenty. You could use any dense vegetable, carrot as long as it's well cooked, pumpkin, even turnip!
- 120 grams of English baby spinach, with their stalks removed - the receipe I first used called for 300g, but that was WAY too much.
- 6 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of cream - I have since moved to an equivalent volume of milk instead as it doesn't make too much of a difference in the end. Slightly less volume in final frittata.
- 80 grams Emmenthal cheese, grated - if you can't find it, you can use cheddar, but spring for a good quality Jarlsberg (which is the most "common" form of Emmenthal) and you'll appreciate it!
- Pepper, a good grinding.
Feeling creative? Spice up this already delicious dish with your own culinary creativity. Anything you add is in addition to the above. All that happens is a thicker frittata. If you pile way too much in, add another egg and a little more cream/milk.
Optional Ingredients:
- Up to 100 grams pepperoni
- Cup mushrooms, 1 handful, sliced thickly
- Spanish black olives, a couple of spoonfuls, sliced - I used pre-packaged ones out of a jar, and they come out fine.
- Sun-dried tomatoes, as many as you want - Also prepackaged. I like these to end up on top, so you can see where they are and every one gets one. Yum.
What to do:
Heat the oil in your frypan, and fry the onions and zucchini on a medium heat until the zucchini and onions are pale golden brown. Add the spinach and cook like crazy, until the spinach wilts fully. Make sure it is fully wilted as otherwise the moisture in the leaves will continue to evaporate in your frittata and make it soggy in the middle. Nobody likes a soggy frittata.
If you are using them, add the optional ingredients now. Give the pan one last shake to make an even level of mixture. Turn the heat as low as it goes.
In your bowl, beat the eggs and cream/milk together and season with that good grinding of pepper. Add half of the grated cheese and mix well. Pour over the mixture in the frypan.
You'll want to cook this for about 4 minutes, give or take, or until the egg is starting to set. Try turning the heat up by JUST a little, and you'll know the egg is starting to set when the edges are solid enough to start to be able to be pulled from the edge of the frypan. DO NOT OVERCOOK the bottom of the frittata. That said, it is remarkably hard to over- or under-cook this dish.
While all this is happening, turn on the grill FULL BALL. Once you think the bottom of frittata is set, sprinkle liberally the remaining cheese over the top, grating on a little more if you don't cover the whole top of the frittata. Once topped with cheese, stick the WHOLE frypan straight under the grill, with about a 5 centimeters (2 inches) gap. Sit back and keep an eye on the top. When the cheese is turning brown and bubbly and oh-so-delicious, pull the frypan out and you are done!
Remember that the pan is still VERY hot, top and bottom, so don't sit it on your nice expensive bench tops. Maybe an oven hotplate that isn't hot? Leave it to sit for a few minutes, then get out a spatula and cut in to wedges, and serve! I recommend with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a big salad. God forbid there are any leftovers, wrapped in cling film, you can keep it for 3 days or so.
Bon apetit!
2004.7.16@18:00 NinjaPenguin says re Spinach and zucchini frittata: A tip to add? If one doesn't have a grill, the "broil" setting on most ovens (at least American ones) will definitely suffice. Excellent EXCELLENT recipe writeup. I love this stuff!