What type of breakfast dish is this anyway?
What’s a frittata you say? Well a frittata is a breakfast egg dish somewhere between a crustless quiche, scrambled eggs, and an omelette. It’s an Italian inspired dish that you can add just about everything to your list of ingredients. You can make this partly on the cooktop and pop in the oven or you can use a frittata pan like I did today. A frittata pan is two pans that connect together so they can be flipped during cooking process. One pan is a little deeper than the other and they are non-stick.
As far as ingredients go, just about anything can be added to your eggs. On this particular morning, sitting at my mahjong table, looking out over our property here in Round Top, I can see our pool and our elevated garden an beyond that the pond. Such a peaceful view and WOW do we ever have beauiful sunsets. We started the garden a couple of months ago. Although we haven’t had the best success with the garden I did get the red bell pepper, and tomato out of the garden for this recipe. I was so hoping for some big green tomatoes to fry but looks like I bought the wrong variety. Oh well, maybe the Fall garden will be better.
When I worked at Williams Sonoma all those years ago I was one of the demo people and got to use all the new pans and accessories we would have in the store. So, needless to say I have just about every pan and gadget we had at the time. The Calpholon fritatta pan was one of our newest pans at the time so I bought one. I love the pan but don’t use it as often as I should.
This morning before going for mahjong afternoon at the brewery, I decided to make a frittata. I had some asparagus, link sausage, eggs of course, cottage cheese, tomatoes and pepper from the garden and a little mixed cheese. There was even some arugula that got tossed with some olive oil for a garnish after plating.
Just in case you do not have a frittata pan I will put oven method in notes of the recipe. After thoughts on todays fritatta — I should have used 8 eggs and cooked it a tad longer. The leftovers are always good for lunch or dinner so using 8 eggs will not go wasted.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: With summer peaches and nice cherries in themarket these days, this Cherry Peach Strudel is a perfect summer dessert.
You can use just about any ingredients you have on hand.
Prep all your ingredients.
Beat the eggs and cottage cheese until well blended.
Start cooking the egg mixture, lifting around the edges to allow uncooked eggs to go to the bottom.
Add sausage and vegetables to skillet. Then cover with other pan (if using fritatta pan).
Add tomatoes.
Cover for 3-4 minutes before flipping again.
When you flip it back over, open up and add cheese then cover and cook another minute or two and then flip pan back over so the cheese browns. (See directions below if now using fritatta pan. No flipping just goes in oven after the eggs set up.)
Mix the arugula with a teaspoon or so olive oil and use this to garnish the fritatta.
Mine would have been a little taller if I had used 8 eggs instead of six.
Sausage and Asparagus Fritatta
Ingredients
- 8 eggs beaten well
- 1/3 c. cottage cheese
- 5-6 links breakfast sausage sliced in 1/2" rounds
- 3-4 pcs. fried bacon crumbled*
- 6-8 spears of asparagus cut in 1/2" pieces
- 1 c. mixed cheese parmesan and cheddar or choice
- 1/4 c. minced red onion
- 1/3 c. minced red bell pepper
- 3 compari tomatoes sliced thin
- arugula for garnish optional
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp. butter
Instructions
Beat the eggs well and then add in the cottage cheese and beat until well blended. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
In the top part of your fritatta pan saute the sausage pieces until almost done and then add one tablespoon of the butter. Add in the red onion and red bell pepper. Saute another 2-3 minutes and then add in the asparagus for another 1-2 minutes.
In the bottom of the fritatta pan, melt one tablespoon of the butter, when melted and hot, add in the egg/cottage cheese mixtuere. Let set in pan a few minutes then start lifting edges to allow uncooked eggs to go to the bottom. Do this all around the edges until almost set. Scatter the sausage, bacon/proscuitto and asparagus/pepper/onion mixture over top of fritatta. Arrange the sliced tomatoes over this and then top with cheese. Cover with the bottom of pan (make sure it locks in place) and let cook for 3-4 minutes and then carefully flip the pan over and let cook another 3-4 minutes. Carefully flip back a final time and cook 2-3 minutes more. Take a peek and see I it looks browned and puffed. If so, carefully remove top pan and slide your fritatta out on a plate.
- If you are using arugula for a garnish, drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and then scatter over top of fritatta. Cut in wedges and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Note: If you do not have a fritatta pan, use any 10" ovenproof/stovetop skillet. Using this method you will want to have all your vegetables and sausage sautéed and set aside. Start with 2 tablespoons of butter in skillet. Melt until hot and sizzling. Add in your egg/cottage cheese mixture and cook as instructed above. When it is startign to look a little puffed, top with sausage, then vegetables, then arrange tomatoes over top and sprinkle with cheese. You will now put this in a 350° oven for 20-30 minutes. You want this to be slightly browned on top and you may want to use a knife to check the eggs to see if they are cooked thoroughly. If it starts to brown too much, top with foil until it has finished cooking. Remove from oven and slide out of pan or serve from the pan. Top with oiled arugula, optional.
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