Frittattas

[Scoats]

I made frittattas for a few dozen people last weekend. People seemed to really like result, so I thought I would share. It is a dish that is relatively easy to prepare, can be prepped the night before, reheats nicely and tastes great.

I'm not a gourmet chef (or the spouse of one - hi Barbara!). I try to make things that taste great and are relatively easy to prepare. Somehow I stumbed on doing both with the frittattas.

Depending on your audience, you may want to call them just "ttattas".

There are a lot of very different frittatta recipe variations on the Net. Never having had frittattas before I had no idea what they should taste like. Unlike a wiser person, I did not allow that to stop me.

The first recipe I tried, which I followed to the letter called for corn. It was good but the texture of the corn was very unpleasant.

My buddy Lou raves about his wife's Frittattas, so I e-mailed her for advice and she says that it is basically a fridge clearer outter sort of thing. This gave me the liberty to pretty much wing it.

To make an oblong Pyrex pan worth of ttattas, you'll need 10 eggs, 1/2 cup of sour cream, 4 to 5 cups of assorted shredded cheese and some meat/vege fillers. To make it Mexican I add fresh green chilis chopped up.

Here are the three versions I made:

Chicken/Onion/Red Peppers - I sauted cubes of chicken and diced onions (with no seasonings) in a little oil until cooked. In a big bowl I mixed the eggs and sour cream, adding some chili powder, ceyanne pepper and a little baking powder. Then I added the chicken and onions, uncooked sliced peppers, 2 to 2.5 cups of shredded chedder and 2 to 2.5 cups of shredded mozzerella. Mixed it all up good. Poured it in the pyrex, sprinkled liberally with the green chilis and baked at 350 for one hour.

Ham/Spud/Onion - I sauted the onions and spuds until cooked on the stove. The ham was aready cooked so didn't need any frying. In a big bowl I mixed the eggs and sour cream, adding some chili powder, ceyanne pepper and a little baking powder. Then I added the potatos, onions, and ham, 2 to 2.5 cups of shredded chedder and 2 to 2.5 cups of shredded mozzerella. Mixed it all up good. Poured it in the pyrex, sprinkled liberally with the green chilis and baked at 350 for one hour.

I also made a version with cut up bacon and diced onions, which I sauted before adding the common ingredients listed above.

[stellabella]

gracias, scoats. ttattas sound like a good way to get more protein in the diet, too. what did you serve with them?

and the possibilities for combinations are endless.

[Scoats]

Skip the spuds and they are good low-carb, high protein meal. Plus if you live alone you can cook up a pan and reheat all week.

Since they are an all in one food, I didn't serve anything else. (all little bit of frittatta with a handful of nuts as dessert is a very satisfying meal). The recipes call for it to be served with salsa and/or sour cream, but I didn't put any out (seemed unnecessary to me) and no one asked for any.

I did however serve beer with them. It was a Groundhog Day Beer Breakfast thing.

The combos are endless. It's a great dish that it allows you to be spontaneous and/or creative and/or to use up stuff in the frig. A seafood one would be interesting, though would probably need an experts touch to figure out how much if any cooking of fish should be done prior to baking.

Edited February 5, 2003 by Scoats (log)

[seawakim]

I served my first Frittata to some friends a few weeks ago and used this recipe for Potato Basil Frittata by the barefoot Contessa.

http://www.foodtv.com/foodtv/recipe/0,6255...5,25258,00.html

I had never tried any of her recipes before, but happened to watch it the day before and it seemed easy and a good idea.

I added some of my personal touches and it turned out good.

My favorite thing was that the leftovers were easily reheated and still tasted good.

[snowangel]

The combos are endless. It's a great dish that it allows you to be spontaneous and/or creative and/or to use up stuff in the frig.

When I was working outside the home, it was my "fall back." Walk in the house, the kids were all hungry, and especially on the nights when either Paul or I had to be out the house in a hour for a meeting, and I hadn't done any planning, it was frittata. I bet we had it once a week. Great, fast, one dish meal that everyone liked. Good for little kids, too, because we didn't have to cut it for them.

Now that I'm home, we still eat frittata fairly often, but now I have time to plan. But there was something about those impromptu ones...

[torakris]

I love fritattas and find them a great way to use up the last of the veggies.

My kids will eat anything if it is inside a fritatta, especially spinach and swiss chard which they don't eat normally.

My favorites are probably potato (just potato, onion, and lots of EVOO) and zucchini ones.

Like Snowangel I used to make them to get rid of leftovers, but I actually plan for them and make a different almost everytime.

My mother has never made them, but they were always on my grandmother's table during family get togethers, usually made with something she picked wild from the yard like amaranth, milkweed, or dandelion.

We never called them fritattas though, my (born in Italy) grandmother also refered to them as quiches!?