To me, frittatas fall into two courses. The primary is a breakfast frittata, which I liken to a basic diner omelet — unapologetically hard-cooked. It’s full of miscellany from the fridge, remodeled pretty excessive warmth on the range, and completed within the broiler. It’s the sort of factor you eat earlier than you hustle off to work.
The second is a breakfast-for-dinner frittata, with extra thought-about components that take a little bit of time to organize. It’s cooked comparatively low and sluggish within the oven, a technique I realized from Carla Lalli Music’s first cookbook, The place Cooking Begins. Lalli Music adopted it from Franny’s, a beloved, now-closed Brooklyn restaurant. The oven technique leads to an evenly lucious, “dense and creamy” (her phrases) frittata — one I flip to each time a nocturnal longing for breakfast meals strikes.
To make your individual, begin by cleansing and slicing 4 ounces of mushrooms. I like shiitakes if I’m shopping for from the grocery retailer, however that is additionally a first-rate alternative to pick extra uncommon varieties from the farmers market. Subsequent, trim the inexperienced half off of 1 small leek and discard. Slice the white a part of the leek lengthwise (it’s okay to depart a bit of sunshine inexperienced) and rinse every half. Dust hides in leeks, so fan the layers together with your fingers because the water washes over them, maintaining the halves as intact as attainable. As soon as they’re clear, pat them dry as finest you may. Now slice every one crosswise into chunks. I make the cuts a few half-inch large as a result of something smaller feels unsubstantial.
I’ll pause right here to say that mushrooms and leeks are a basic mixture, however as with every frittata, be happy to make use of no matter greens you want.
Preheat the oven to 300 levels.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into an 8-inch nonstick skillet and set it over medium warmth. (You’ll be able to eyeball this, too — simply make certain there’s a skinny layer overlaying the underside of the pan.) Add the mushrooms, give them a stir so that they get coated within the oil, and unfold them out. It’s best to stir them just a few subsequent occasions in order that each side have an opportunity to make contact with the floor of the pan, however for essentially the most half, depart them alone. Mushrooms leach out their moisture, which must evaporate, earlier than they’ll brown and crisp. The extra you allow them to do their factor with out disturbing them, the sooner this course of will go. You may as well add extra olive oil as wanted; mushrooms take in rather a lot. You don’t wish to be loopy heavy-handed, but when the skillet begins to look dry at any level, drizzle just a little extra.
Whereas the mushrooms are cooking, crack 3 eggs right into a small bowl. (I’m being beneficiant right here, since that is dinner, however I usually use 2 eggs, which is completely fantastic and equally scrumptious. It’s going to simply end in a thinner frittata.) Season with kosher salt. Regardless of what some declare, this won’t dry out your eggs. Sohla El-Wally has a useful explainer on how a lot salt to make use of in this NYT Cooking video, however the fundamental thought is a small pinch scattered throughout the floor of every egg. Whisk till clean. Break up 1 ounce of goat cheese, and gently combine it into the eggs. Set them apart.
Return to the mushrooms. They take about eight minutes whole — however belief your eyes greater than my phrase. As they end cooking, season them with kosher salt. (Salting firstly attracts out an excessive amount of moisture directly, prolonging the time it takes for the mushrooms to crisp.) As soon as they’re executed, place them right into a small bowl and put aside.
Return the skillet to the range, flip down the warmth a smidge, drizzle in just a little bit extra olive oil if wanted, and add the leek. Season with salt. In contrast to with the mushrooms, it’s best to stir each jiffy; the aim is for the leek to get smooth and tackle only a little bit of colour. This must also take about eight minutes. When it’s executed, kill the warmth, however depart the leek within the pan.
Add the mushrooms again to the skillet, stir them with the leek, and unfold the whole lot again out. Pour within the egg combination. Lastly, sprinkle ½ ounce of grated Parm excessive, together with just a few turns of freshly cracked black pepper.
Place the skillet into the oven for 13 to fifteen minutes till the eggs are cooked by. Take it out and let it sit when you make a bit of toast to eat alongside. Slide the frittata onto a chopping board, slice, and thank god it’s not 9 a.m. and also you don’t have a gathering to get to.
Emma Wartzman is the kitchen and eating author at New York Journal’s the Strategist.
Further picture illustration credit: plate picture by Emma Wartzman
