TGIF: Thank God It’s Fritatta

Thank God It’s Frittata. The perfect meal to finish up all your unused food before next week’s grocery shopping.

It’s the end of the week and the fridge is still full of forlorn vegetables that didn’t get made into a meal. Enter the frittata — Italy’s egg-based free-for-all that’s outrageously simple and hits the spot morning, noon, or night. Great served hot or cold, it’s a mix of eggs, veggies, herbs, cheese, and anything else that strikes your fancy. The caramelized crispy crust, the warm moist eggs and cheese, the tender veggies, and herb one-two punch make it a perfectly balanced meal.

I enjoy a mixture of tastes and textures in my frittata and like to have a green (spinach, kale, swiss chard), a starch (potatoes – red, white, purple), and a medley of veggies and legumes (peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, onions, asparagus, garbanzo beans, sundried tomatoes … you get the idea). And the cheese — hard or soft, cheddar, goat, ricotta, parmesan, gruyere, mozzarella — whatever’s in the fridge. I like to use a 12-inch skillet to make six generous portions so I can have leftovers.

The basic recipe is chop and saute your veggies (making sure to drain the greens so they don’t water down the frittata), stir in your herbs, spices, and other treats, fold in your lightly beated eggs (I use a dozen), and add cheese. Mix it all together, heat up on the burner to cook the bottom, into the oven to finish cooking so the eggs set completely, and a quick stop in the broiler for a nice golden brown crust.

Recipe…

TGIF Frittata for this week (makes six servings)

1 bunch swiss chard, destemmed and chopped

1 orange bell pepper, diced

3 zucchini squash, diced

2 garlic gloves, minced

Eight baby yukon gold potatoes, diced and boiled until tender

One generous handful of parmesan cheese

A few dashes of dried oregano, dried basil, kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper

1 dozen eggs lightly beated with a splash of milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 12 inch skillet, saute vegetables and garlic, fold in eggs and spices, and add cheese. Cook on medium flame burner until bottom cooks and pulls away from the pan (five minutes or so) and then finish cooking in the oven (fifteen – twenty minutes) until you can shake the pan and the eggs have set completely. Brown the top in the broiler (two – three minutes) and serve.