Frittata

Frittata with Braised Mustard Greens

January  9, 2014

Each Thursday, Emily Vikre (a.k.a fiveandspice) will be sharing a new way to love breakfast -- because breakfast isn't just the most important meal of the day. It's also the most awesome.

Today: Why frittata is the perfect food -- and how to make it.

Frittata from Food52 

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The reasons to love frittata are many, almost innumerable. So, let me give you just the top four.

One: Frittata is really fun to say. Especially if you roll your R, really give some explosive heft to each syllable, and then elongate the last A. Try it! Frrrittataaaa. You’ll feel sort of like you’re at Hogwarts casting a spell. Probably to cause a chicken to appear and start laying eggs.

Two: Frittata can be eaten for any meal of the day. It is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It’s also good for second breakfast, elevenses, afternoon snack, or with a cold beer while you’re waiting for dinner to be ready.

Three: You can eat frittata warm, cold, or at room temperature and neither taste nor texture will suffer. If only everything were so easy going!

Four: Most of the best frittatas start, as this one did, with leftovers.

As such, to do this properly, you really should double the amount of greens you cook (I’ll let you do the math) and use the first half for dinner. Toss them with a bowlful of pasta and a handful of Parmesan or serve them as a bed for broiled fish with a squeeze of lemon. The spicy, nose tingling mustard greens become mellow and silky when given enough time over heat and can be used here, there, and everywhere. The second half of the greens, then, go into frittata. Just warm them up, pour over your whisked eggs, cook, broil, Frrrrittataaaaa!  

Frittata from Food52

Frittata with Braised Mustard Greens

Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
A pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 pound mustard greens (or kale) stemmed and cut/torn into bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
10 large eggs

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by Emily Vikre

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I like to say I'm a lazy iron chef (I just cook with what I have around), renegade nutritionist, food policy wonk, and inveterate butter and cream enthusiast! My husband and I own a craft distillery in Northern Minnesota called Vikre Distillery (www.vikredistillery.com), where I claimed the title, "arbiter of taste." I also have a doctorate in food policy, for which I studied the changes in diet and health of new immigrants after they come to the United States. I myself am a Norwegian-American dual citizen. So I have a lot of Scandinavian pride, which especially shines through in my cooking on special holidays. Beyond loving all facets of food, I'm a Renaissance woman (translation: bad at focusing), dabbling in a variety of artistic and scientific endeavors.

6 Comments

cucina D. January 11, 2014
Frittata was one of the first foods I learned to cook as a child, my parents made so many variations I cannot even count them. Favorites are vegetable and mushroom combos and my father's version made with leftover spaghetti and vegetables. We eat them at all times of the day and night. Thank you for honoring one of my favorite cultural foods from my home country of Italia.
 
fiveandspice January 13, 2014
Yes! The variations are infinite - and so good!
 
aargersi January 9, 2014
frrriitahtahhhhhh

(Jeff Dunham and Peanut)
 
fiveandspice January 10, 2014
:)
 
Alice G. January 9, 2014
I make fritatta so much it is shameful because it is so easy to throw together after I get home from work. It it bad to enjoy leftover-using recipes more than the leftover-making ones? Because between fritatta, fried rice and quiche, I think I do.
Also, fritatta IS so much fun to say!
 
fiveandspice January 10, 2014
I don't think it's bad, I think it's awesome. That's what cooking is about!