Recipe - Saturday Morning Frittata

Frittata with Steak, Hatch Chilis, Potato, and Scallions

Growing up, my dad had a rule about breakfast.  He would come to my room, open the door, and announce "Tony, time to get up!".  That was my only alarm.  If I decided to keep sleeping, I would miss breakfast entirely and be left to my own devices until lunch.  Often, that missed breakfast would consist of a frittata (a kind of Italian omelet), and some black coffee ("black" referring to coffee made in a "moka pot" on the stove - I had mine with cream and sugar).  If you've never had a frittata, you should really try making one.  You will understand why I rarely slept through breakfast. 

The word "frittata" must be Italian for "delicious leftovers", because that's exactly what it is.  Take anything left over from Friday night's dinner, cut it into pieces, fry it in a skillet, dump scrambled eggs on it and bon appetito!  You have yourself Saturday morning breakfast...or lunch...or a snack.

Click the read link for the recipe.
Making a frittata is very simple, and this recipe is meant to teach you more of the technique than anything else.  You can use any ingredients you wish in place of mine, but generally speaking you would use a starch - in this case potatoes, but leftover pasta is great as well -  and a vegetable or two.  Optionally you can add a meat; I often use leftover steak as my wife can only eat about 2 oz. of steak at dinner.

My leftovers: steak (middle), roasted hatch chilis (next to steak)
along with some fresh yukon gold potatoes, scallions, and garlic

First, heat up your skillet with a little olive oil and cook your starch (if it is uncooked) or heat it up (is it is cooked).  Once that's about ready, throw in the veggies.  Again, use your leftovers.  Asparagus, broccoli rabe, spinach, whatever.  I didn't have any of those, so I added some scallions and roasted hatch chilis for a little greenery and flavor.  Here's my skillet:

Yummy hash browns!

When that's good to go, add your meat and heat it through.

Steak and few more scallion tops

Beat about four eggs for a frittata this size.  Add those over the top and reduce the heat to medium-low.

Now, using a thin spatula, keep lifting the edges of the giant egg pancake, allowing the runny egg to get underneath and congeal.  Repeat all around the edges until your egg is just a little runny on top and the bottom of the frittata is loose from the pan.

At this point you can do one of several things:

1. If you are a master chef and/or daredevil, you can attempt to flip the whole thing over to cook the other side.
2. If you are not afraid of burning your hands, you can attempt to use a plate to flip the frittata over to cook the other side.
3. If you are none of the above, turn on your broiler, place the pan under the broiler, and cook the top.

Now plate the sucker.

Voila!

Mmmmmm.  Breakfast!