Breakfast Frittata

     I have mentioned before my enduring love of the frittata. I've done a baked pasta frittata and a vegetable frittata. Somehow I just never got around to making one for breakfast. Not surprisingly, it was delicious. It's pretty hard to screw up breakfast unless you just burn the living shit out of it.

D'oh!

Not much else to say about this. It's versatile. Add other veggies, change out the sausage with bacon or ham, or just leave it out if meat's not your thing. Use different cheese. Get crazy. As always, notes are in blue.

Breakfast Frittata

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage
• 4 small potatoes, cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1/2 large yellow onion
• 1/2 cup salsa (we used Red Cactus Sweet Heat Salsa)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gasmark5)
2. On the stovetop, place a cast iron skillet on medium high heat and add oil. Add potatoes. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until potatoes start to get tender. 
3. Add onions and sausage. Mix and cook until sausage is cooked through. Drain any excess oil.
4. In a bowl, add the eggs and milk (please remember to crack open the eggs.) Add salsa seasoning to desired level. Whisk until everything is incorporated.
5. Pour egg mixture into skillet and cook on the stovetop for about 5-7 minutes. 
6. Move skillet into oven and cook for about 15 minutes, or until eggs are almost completely set.
7. Top with the shredded cheese and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese has completely melted and started to bubble.
8. Take out of oven and let set for a few minutes. 

Good times!

Vegetable Frittata

     Frittatas are just wonderful. There's so much you can do with them. You can pretty much dump anything in a frittata and it will be good. You could probably load one with Cap'n Crunch and have a winner on your hands. Actually, that doesn't sound bad. I may have to give that one a spin. This particular frittata is loaded with veggies and is much healthier, coming in at only 150 calories per serving. Consider that for a second. You could eat the entire damned pan and be out for only 900 calories. That's value! Fair warning, the veggies will build up some water, so you'll need to drain this a bit before serving. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Vegetable Frittata
via Betty Crocker: The 300 Calorie Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion (1/2 cup) chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium bell pepper (1 cup), chopped
• 2 small zucchini (2 cups), chopped
• 1 small tomato (1/2 cup), chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 eggs or 1-1/2 cups fat-free egg product (wow, when they make it sound so appetizing, how can I go with anything else than actual eggs. Maybe I can go find some artificial imitation ersatz margarine substitute, too!)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350F (180C, Gasmark 4)
2. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet (cast-iron is perfect here), melt butter over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. 
3. Stir in bell pepper, reduce heat to medium. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender (for whatever reason, the term "crisp-tender" just pisses me off to no end. I think maybe it smacks of pretentiousness. It could just be that I'm hateful. Anything's possible). 
4. Stir in zucchini, tomato, salt and pepper. Cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. In a small bowl, beat eggs with wire whisk or fork (or chopsticks if you feel like showing off) until blended; pour over vegetable mixture.
6. Bake uncovered 10 to 12 minutes or until center is set. Sprinkle with cheese. Cut into wedges. (Or just stand at the stove and grimly shovel forkful after forkful into your mouth straight from the skillet. I'm not here to judge). 

Good times!

Baked Pasta Frittata

     I really like the idea of baked pasta, but it's just not something we do much in our house. I'm not sure what came over me to decide on this recipe. I think I was looking for some sort of pasta casserole and saw this. I had most of the ingredients in the house and had solid substitutions for the ingredients that were not on hand.  The result was not bad. The smoked sausage gave it a nice savory flavor. I think this would be good if I swapped in some spinach or kale. It was a touch on the heavy side and made for a very filling meal. I'll try it again, but I have the feeling this will be one of those recipes I'm endlessly swapping parts on. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Baked Pasta Frittata 
via The Essential Pasta Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 oz butter
• 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 6 eggs
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped (the Wife's not a huge fan of green peppers, so we used a yellow bell pepper)
• 4 oz ham, sliced (we decided we had a surplus of smoked sausages in the freezer, so we used a 7 oz smoked sausage, halved and sliced)
• 1 cup cream or milk (we went with heavy cream)
• 3-1/2 oz spaghetti, cooked and chopped (amazingly enough, we did not have spaghetti in the house. We used rotini instead)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (right. Freshly poured out of the jar of Parmesan is more like it)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly brush a flan dish with oil or melted butter (flan dish? Didn't have one on hand. I must have left it in the trunk of my Rolls Royce when I had the butler take it to be serviced. Please. I used my trusty cast iron skillet)
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the mushrooms and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes.  Add the pepper and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the meat. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly. 
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, cream and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the pasta, parsley and mushroom mixture and pour into the prepared dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Good times!