What is a frittata? It’s a posh word for omelette. The only real difference is that an omelette is cooked, then the filling added and the cooked egg folded over. Whereas an Italian frittata, like a Spanish tortilla, has the filling ingredients mixed in with the egg. An omelette is cooked just on the hob, but a frittata is baked in the oven. The great thing about eggs is that you can mix virtually anything with them, a great user of leftovers.
Blue cheese and green olive frittata
Serves 4
You will a good quality non-stick frying pan such as a Greenpan which is non stick but the lining doesn’t peel off or a seasoned black and shiny cast iron skillet.
Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 clove of garlic, cut in half for rubbing
6 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsps of creme fraiche
Pepper
150g blue cheese
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small tin of green olives, stuffed with red peppers or anchovies.
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 200c. Prepare your oven proof frying pan or skillet, rubbing it with olive oil and a clove of garlic. Beat the eggs, adding the creme fraiche and pepper. Pour a little more olive oil into the pan. Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and then crumble in the blue cheese and the garlic. Then dot the stuffed olives all over. Put the pan in the oven and ‘bake’ for five minutes or until golden and cooked through if that’s how you like your eggs.
If you are having this for lunch rather than breakfast, serve with a glass of tawny port, a glass of champagne or a glass of slightly oaky chardonnay such as Chamonix Chardonnay.
Postscript: reader and fellow blogger Rachel Eats, who lives in Rome (lucky thing) says the word ‘frittata’ comes from ‘Friggere’ to fry. She says that in Italian recipes, a frittata is made on the stove top, and is a “fat open omelette cooked slowly on a low flame”. MFK Fisher however suggests “Pour the whole back into the skillet, cover the pan tightly, and cook over a slow fire until the edges of the frittata pull away from the pan. If the middle puffs up, prick it with a long sharp knife”.
Postscript: reader and fellow blogger Rachel Eats, who lives in Rome (lucky thing) says the word ‘frittata’ comes from ‘Friggere’ to fry. She says that in Italian recipes, a frittata is made on the stove top, and is a “fat open omelette cooked slowly on a low flame”. MFK Fisher however suggests “Pour the whole back into the skillet, cover the pan tightly, and cook over a slow fire until the edges of the frittata pull away from the pan. If the middle puffs up, prick it with a long sharp knife”.
This looks so tasty! Thanks for the information too- very interesting 🙂
You are welcome Mollie
I absolutely love spanish omelette with chorizo, onion and of course, potato. Will try it in a "fritata" style!! Thanks for the recipe and the idea!!!
http://tinymarmalade.blogspot.co.uk/
Me too, especially with hot sauce!
This is timely. Been diagnosed Type 2 not long ago and adjusting diet, so flour, rice and potatoes are out, meat, veg, eggs and cheese (fats) are in… and olives have no carbs…. always interested to see ratio of eggs to cream… will definitely add this to dinner and, if any left over, to lunch next day. Aj
AJ, sorry to hear this. Better to have sweet potatoes than potatoes as they are low GI. I'm going to write some stuff on diabetes once I've got this book out of the way. xx