Kitchen Sink Dinner Frittata

Dear ones. I'm so bad at visuals and at remembering to blog. You'll have to forgive me. But I thought I'd pass along my weeknight default dinner when I need to use up veggies that have kind of passed the point of being crisp enough for salad. It works perfectly well for guests or yourself. I wrote the recipe in terms of per-serving because you can make anywhere between 1 and like 6 servings using the same methodology. Just plan on a longer baking time for cooking six servings. The frittata can be served hot or at room temp. Left overs store well in the fridge for several days and are great for taking to work for lunch.

Ingredients:

· 1 strip bacon or sliced poultry sausage per serving (optional)
· 2 eggs per serving
· 1/2 cup veggies per serving (onions, peppers, squash, broccoli, mushrooms, greens are great too, but if using greens that will wilt do like a cup per serving at least and make sure you cook the liquid out.
· 1 tsp chopped fresh or ¼ tsp dried herbs per serving
· 1/8 C dairy (milk, half-and-half, plain yogurt) per serving
· 1 tbs shredded or soft cheese per serving (optional)

Non-negotiable Tools:
Non-stick or cast iron pan with a lid (or foil)

1. Heat oven to 425
2. Over medium heat cook bacon. If using pre-cooked bacon strips, heat it up enough to crisp the bacon and get the fat out.
a. While bacon cooks, use a fork or whisk to combine eggs, dairy, herbs and salt/pepper
b. Chop all veggies to about the same size
3. Remove bacon strips from pan and lay on paper towels to drain.
4. Pour out and discard most of bacon fat, reserving enough in the pan to cook your pile of veggies. Use your judgment on how much you need.
5. Sauté veggies, beginning always with aromatics (onions, garlic, spicy peppers). Carmelize these first. Then add veggies in order of water content. (Mushrooms, greens, peppers, etc). It’s not the end of the world if you guess wrong on water content, but they’ll just flavor up better that way. If things start to burn, add a little water or chicken stock. (NB: If you’re not using bacon, cook veggies in a combination of equal parts butter and low-flavor oil like canola oil).
6. When veggies are cooked, add a little bit more fat to the pan (oil, butter, bacon fat – whatever). Pour in egg mixture and turn heat down to medium-low. Don’t touch the mixture. Cover with a lid and let cook 5 min.
7. After 5 or so min you will see the edges of the egg mixture start to look “dry” or “set.” Sprinkle crumbled bacon and cheese over the top of the mixture.
8. Cover and put in middle rack of oven for 15-30 min. Maybe longer for like 12 eggs. Probably closer to an hour for that one.
9. To test if the frittata is done, take pan out of the over and touch the middle of the omelet with your finger. It should kinda spring back.
10. Allow to cool 10 min. Then run a heat-safe spatula around the rim and invert the whole thing on a plate.
11. Serve in wedges.