Eggs Again--Frittata

When on Friday night I found myself with two beautiful red peppers and a half a carton of eggs, the eggs became the centerpiece of our dinner yet again. This time it was a frittata.

The versatile frittata is simply an open-faced Italian omelet. The Italian frittata,which is flat and round, is cooked over low heat until it is firm and set. It is never runny, and it is cooked on both sides. Its fillings are limited only by your imagination.

In a large non-stick skillet, coated with olive oil, I sauteed the sliced peppers and an onion until soft.  Then I seasoned them with salt and pepper.

 I beat 5 large eggs with salt, pepper and a large handful of grated Pecorino cheese.

I poured the egg mixture over the vegetables and turned the heat to low. Without stirring, I let the eggs cook over low heat until only the top was runny.  Now the fun part--remember, the frittata is cooked on both sides. Some people flip the frittata with a flourish to finish the cooking.  I was never that brave.
I would always turn it over on a dish, then slide the frittata back into the pan. Marcella suggests running the pan under the broiler for 20 seconds without browning the frittata.  But the easiest for me now is to allow the frittata to finish cooking in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes or until set.

This is nice with a green salad and a crisp white wine.

You might enjoy seeing these variations by Georgia and Miryam.

Sunday Dinner With Friends, Marcella Style

I hadn't even gotten the dinner invitation out of my mouth, when T replied in the affirmative. "Don' t you even want to know what I'm cooking?"  She always does. "No, what time should we be there?" "Well, I'm making homemade pasta."  That got her attention.

I was inspired to make pasta after reading an essay written by Italian-cooking doyenne, Marcella Hazan, in her last cookbook, Marcella Says.  Home made pasta was something I made often back in the days when our dinner parties were more formal, when serving course after course was, well, a matter of course.  Over the years life happened, we all got a little older, and informal entertaining seemed the way to go.  And somewhere along the way I stopped making pasta.

Well now was as good a time as any to pull out my decades-old Atlas pasta machine.  You know the kind that was to be had at any Italian grocery store.  The kind that had to be clamped to the table. The kind that you had to crank. That kind of pasta machine.

I clamped the machine to the table and I took out my large wooden board.  Next I dumped the unbleached flour onto the board and made a well.  Into the well went the eggs.

The eggs were beaten with a fork with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  Don't tell Marcella about the oil.  Then, little by little the flour was taken from the sides of the well incorporating the eggs.

Eventually it formed a dough which you gather into ball and begin to knead after cleaning off the board. 

Then more kneading on the widest setting of the pasta machine.

After thinning and stretching, then drying.

Cutting

And drying again

Finally, serving with Marcella's tomato sauce with onion and butter.

The pasta was light, delicious and just heavenly. I know what I said about courses, but I did follow the pasta with pesto meatballs and then a refreshing fennel and orange salad. 

My thanks to Marcella for the inspiration.

The Weekend

Cold and blustery outside, this weekend proved to be warm and cozy at our house.

Friday night chesse crispettes perfect with a Negroni

Saturday morning bran muffin

A cup of turkey chili for lunch between errands

A healthy dinner of roasted mushroom and string bean farro salad from Closet Cooking

Sunday brunch potatoes and eggs

Sunday dinner half time skirt steak sandwiches