Friday, February 29, 2008

Frittata, tata, ta

My hubs loves to say frittata. He thinks its a great word. But doesn't understand why its called a frittata & not a souffle or why there is a thing called a Spanish tortilla, when its the same thing as a frittata, and what do the Spanish call a flour tortilla then? You know the kind you use to make a burrito. So I did some wiki research and here is what it says

"Spanish tortilla española is a characteristic thick omelette stuffed with fried potatoes and fine cut onion, and fried using olive oil. "
"Frittata is a kind of open-faced Italian omelette that can contain cheese, vegetables, or even leftover pasta. Frittata are cooked slowly. Except for the cooking fat, all ingredients are fully mixed with the eggs before cooking starts. "
Oh, ok I understand now. (um not really, one has potatoes & is fried, one is baked?)

Here is my Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomato Fritatta, courtesy of Epicurious!(which came from Self Magazine who get it from Golden Door Chef Dean Rucker)
Ingredients
Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small shallot, chopped
1 cup packed fresh spinach, chopped
4 whole eggs
4 egg whites
8 sun-dried tomato halves, chopped
1/2 cup grated Asiago
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Prep
Heat oven to 425°F. Coat 4 small baking dishes with cooking spray. Set aside. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook shallot until soft but not brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add spinach; cook 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Lightly whisk eggs and egg whites in a bowl. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, basil, spinach mixture, salt and pepper. Spoon into baking dishes; bake until firm in the center, 12 to 14 minutes.

Now for mine, I just cooked it in my skillet b/c I let it brown up on the stove prior to putting it in the oven. I also used dried basil & didn't measure the S&P. Oh and I use egg beaters. 1 1/2 cups to be exact. My sun-dried tomatoes were in a jar packed in oil, so I placed the tomatoes on a paper towel lined plate & dabbed the extra oil off of them before I chopped them up.

I really enjoy making frittatas because we eat egg beaters every morning. I hate getting up earlier to make some scrambled eggs for us, so I cook the frittata the night before & we have breakfast for the next 2 days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why isn't it a frittata? Frtittata is the Italian term for omelette. Why isn't it called an omelette instead of a frittata? Everyone has his/her own way of saying it. So, what's a frittata in Italian is an omelette in French and a tortilla in Spanish. Tortilla is the diminutive of "torta".

According to one source I read, French omelettes don't contain potatoes. Potatoes are a necessary feature for the tortilla de papas, so, to distinguish the Spaniard from the French, some in the Americas call it the "Spanish tortilla" ( vs. the French omelette). Tortillas de papaps, in Spain, are a bocadillo, or appetizer, whereas the omelette is more a main course. I for one don't tend to think of an omelette as a tapa, or bocadillo!


I hope you don't mind my sharing this. Your DH DID ask why. There is a reason why it's called what it is, to distinguish it from a similar type of dish.