Sunday, January 11, 2009

Fresh Mozzarella Frittata...

Getting back into the groove, we prepared 7 new recipes this week with our favorites being the Sesame Bagels, Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto Pizza and those Southwestern-Style Mashed Potato Cakes.

Happen to have an abundance of eggs on hand? You'll need them if you want to try out this Prosciutto-and-Fresh-Mozzarella Frittata we ended up making for dinner! The recipe actually called for using 10 eggs, but we used eight instead and replaced the other two with four egg whites. If that is still too many whole eggs for you, you could drop down to 5 or 6, but I wouldn't go much lower than that as the texture will begin to suffer from the lack of yolks.

To season up that big bowl of eggs, we added a little Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh basil, parsley and a heavy splash of milk to also get them loosened up. Warming up a generous layer of olive oil was on tap next so we could add a couple thinly sliced shallots - cooked until they had softened, we then stirred in small diced chunks from a tomato and thin strips from our one of our favorite salty ingredients... prosciutto! The seasoned eggs are the poured in and left for a few minutes to set the bottom - if it looks like those pieces of tomato and prosciutto are bunched up, don't be afraid to stick a fork into the eggs and move them around. So this frittata cooks evenly, it is placed into the oven to finish - however, one more thing is needed before that!

Another reason we chose to make this is because we still had fresh mozzarella from that pizza we made on Friday to get used up. So, before we placed the full skillet into the oven, we tucked in several cubes into the egg mixture. Gooey pockets of cheese anyone? I'm not sure if our pan was off, but I did used the "8 inch" pan called for and by the time all the ingredients were in, it was very uncomfortably full. I almost switched pans, but went ahead and ended without a disaster happening - however, I needed almost ten more minutes than the time listed for the center to be just firm to the touch.

Cut into wedges to serve, we found the golden pieces to be quite substantial - I'd almost think about using a ten inch pan instead just to save on grief... it would also have the benefit of cooking a little faster! In the end, it really didn't matter much because this frittata had my taste buds in a tizzy - while it was "eggy" in a sense (I know... imagine that!), those strips of salty prosciutto, juicy chunks of fresh tomato and buried pockets of mozzarella cheese gave this a complexity that ensured it didn't feel like just a hunk of cooked eggs. We both thought this might also be a pleasant brunch dish that could fill you up without being too heavy... also good because this would be just as tasty slightly warm or even served at room temperature!

6 comments:

  1. I was wondering if it was the milk that made it longer to harden ?? Anyways since we don't eat meet i am going to try and make this without the meat.

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  2. I made my first quiche this weekend and it turned out so good, even our 11 yr old daughter loved it, the only think she didn't like was the crust. I'm gonna try this recipe. Did you make this in a cast iron skillet?? Did you b utter the pan that it came out so beautifuuly?

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  3. This looks great, I love fritattas. They're so easy and delicious!

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  4. Zobars - possibly, but it was probably the differences in the skillets... I think it made ours a bit thicker.

    Bunny - Just a regular skillet... no need to butter because you start out with a generous amount of oil.

    Sara - We agree!

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  5. That looks delicious!! I have never tackled a quiche or frittata before.

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  6. DA - I hope we gave you the push to try one out!

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