RECIPE AT THE TOP #2: the many faces of a frittata 🍳
just a quick post for a quick “base” recipe — when in doubt: frittata
Yes! Here is the recipe: AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. Blurb comes after — what a concept 🤯
VARIATIONS ON A FRITTATA
frit-ta-ta (noun) : an Italian dish made by mixing eggs and frying them with small pieces of other food such as cheese, potatoes, or vegetables (Cambridge Dictionary)
CHORIZO, MUSHROOM, KALE
15 eggs
1 pound chorizo (cooked and broken down)
2 cups tuscan kale, minced
1 cup blue oyster mushrooms, finely chopped
⅓ cup heavy cream
1 ¼ cup english coastal cheddar [LINK], grated
salt + pepper, to taste
1 ½ T bacon grease
TOMATO, BASIL, CHICKEN SAUSAGE
15 eggs
1 pound tomato basil chicken sausage (sliced and cut into quarters)
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup basil, chopped
½-⅔ cup whole milk
⅔ cup very soft goat cheese (broken up into tsp-size dollops)
salt + pepper, to taste
1 ½ T bacon grease
END-OF-SUMMER VEGETABLES
15 eggs
1 cup whole milk
4 cups various end-of-summer vegetables
red pepper
kale
zucchini
leeks
other options: cherry tomatoes, eggplant
8 oz very soft goat cheese (broken up into tsp-size dollops)
1T herbes de provence
½ tsp garlic powder
salt + pepper, to taste
1 ½ T bacon grease
ITALIAN SAUSAGE + KALE
15 eggs
1 pound Italian sausage (cooked and broken down)
½ cup milk
~2 cups tuscan kale, minced
8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 ¼ cup feta (broken up into tsp-size or smaller crumbles)
salt + pepper to taste
1 ½ T bacon grease
POTATOES, PEPPERS, ONIONS
15 eggs
1 cup whole milk
¾ pound new potatoes, sliced into ¼” rounds
1 green pepper, chopped (~ ¾ cup)
½ large yellow onion, chopped (~1 ½ cup)
1T dried parsley
1 ½ tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup gouda
1/2 cup feta
salt + pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
preheat your oven to 450F
in a large bowl, whisk eggs until combined
add remaining ingredients (except bacon grease), mix until combined
heat a 12” cast iron skillet over high heat, melt the bacon grease and coat the whole skillet evenly, brushing up onto the sides
add the frittata mixture and cook over high heat until edges are pale yellow and you can see a distinct edge between the egg and the skillet
bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes (until the top is bouncy to touch, no jiggling)
NOTES:
tsp = teaspoon ; T = tablespoon
in place of the bacon grease, you can also use lard, tallow, or avocado oil
when using potatoes, make sure to lightly brown these in the cast iron over medium high heat before adding the remaining egg mixture (back up to high heat — turn it up to 11)
for ground meats/sausage:
if using a fresher type of sausage (from farmers market or butcher), remove sausage from casing; if using store-bought (in tight casing), slice into rounds
cook in separate skillet over medium high heat until broken down to bite size pieces and lightly browned
let cool and combine with egg mixture just before adding to skillet
favorite meats 🥩🥓🌭 — chorizo, italian sausage, sage sausage, bacon (cut into 1” pieces and lightly cook in separate skillet)
favorite cheeses 🧀 — ricotta, goat cheese, gruyère, gouda, cheddar
Frittatas are just another solid recipe to have under your belt for when things get crazy. An absolute staple in our house.
What could be simpler than dumping everything (minus the bacon grease) into a big bowl, gently mixing it together, adding it to a hot skillet, then baking it the rest of the way in the oven? And you can put pretty much anything you want into it, in any combination you want. The versatility! (Hint: use the frittata as a catalyst/vessel for using the vegetables that have been sitting in your fridge for a little longer than you may have intended.) Plus, the frittata acts as a triple-threat recipe. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. What a perfect food, IMHO 💁🏻♀️
**Frittatas were also one of my favorite things to make early on in the solids journey for our son. Very simple to modify for different developmental stages — it’s all in the chopping and serving size. Cut wide strips for young babies to grab, letting them break it up with their gums and tongue to help them “map their mouth”. Start with minced vegetables and fine crumbles of meat and work towards less chopping over time as they gain strength and develop their oral motor skills. The size of their pinky finger is a good guide to what is possibly chokable for them.
From what I was seeing on all the grossly pressure-y parenting sides of instagram that the U.S. surgeon general officially states is adding to our stress levels and burnout these days, I felt like I had to make separate foods for him, especially in the beginning. All the recipes I was seeing were like “little mini egg muffin bites” or “veggie filled apple cinnamon mini muffins” and everything looked like it didn’t taste very good — sorry I’m not sorry for saying that. But hello, taste matters. AND us parents of young children clearly do not need any more stress in our lives. I did it once or twice though, the egg muffin bites, and it was meh. It’s just not as convenient (or as cute) as they make it look. So what did I do? I put the same shit in a cast-iron and made a fucking frittata.
That’s it for this week — enjoy these 5 (FIVE!) different frittata suggestions at your leisure, and tell me what you come up with on your own! And remember, when in doubt, do what my 2 year old says: hakuna frittata 🍳
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
❤️ Sarah
**Again, I am not an infant feeding specialist, but my son had one for the first year of his life. Her guidance is what is bringing me here to you today. For a more formal and professional approach to learning about feeding your baby, please check out her instagram or website. She is awesome.