There are many kinds of frittata, or Italian baked omelet, but asparagus, mushrooms, and eggs make an especially good partnership. Have all the vegetables cut and ready to go before you start cooking. This is good at room temperature and so makes ideal picnic food. Serve a big green salad alongside. Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
1 bunch fresh asparagus
3 tablespoons olive oil, in all
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, finely crushed about ½ teaspoon salt
8 ounces white or brown mushrooms, wiped clean, trimmed, halved, and thinly sliced
8 large eggs, at room temperature freshly ground black pepper pinch of hot red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons freshly grated
Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Heat the oven to 300°F. To prepare the asparagus, rinse it, then peel the bottom 3 to 4 inches of each stalk with a vegetable peeler. Snap the tough bottom off each stalk (peeling it first yields a greater quantity of tender asparagus), and diagonally slice the asparagus, tips and all, as thinly as possible.
In a 10-inch oven-safe skillet (if you wish to unmold the frittata onto a platter, a nonstick skillet is recommended), heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onion and garlic with a couple of pinches of salt and sauté, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent—it shouldn’t brown. Add the mushrooms with a generous pinch of salt and sauté for a few moments more. Once the juice from the mushrooms begins to subside, add the asparagus with a generous pinch of salt, and sauté until the asparagus is tender (adding salt with each addition keeps the various flavors distinct). Crack the eggs into a large bowl and beat lightly, just enough to break up the yolks. Stir the warm mushroom asparagus mixture into the eggs. (Keep the skillet nearby—it will be used to cook the frittata.) To the egg mixture, add freshly ground pepper to taste, ¼ teaspoon salt, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and the parsley and Parmesan. Beat lightly just until everything is combined.
Clean the skillet, and in it, warm the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over a medium flame for a minute. Dump in the egg mixture and put the skillet in the oven. Bake until the mixture is set in the center, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the frittata “set up” for about 5 minutes before turning it out onto a plate or a board. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.
Chard and Mushroom Frittata
Substitute a bunch of chard for the bunch of asparagus in the recipe above. Remove the leafy green part from the chard and slice the stems finely. Sauté the stems with the onion, then chop the leaves and add them at the end. Cook until the vegetables are just tender, then mix as directed in the recipe. This variation is good with crumbled feta cheese substituted for the Parmesan.
Excerpted with permission from The Commonsense Kitchen by Tom Hudgens. Copyright 2010, Tom Hudgens. Published by Chronicle Books.
Top image: Margaret Chidgey, stock.xchng
Thought that was sweet? You'll enjoy:
