Monday, September 27, 2010

Spaghetti Frittata

{Meatless Monday}

OK...so it's been a month since I've posted anything.  Sorry!  Honestly, I have been in a total cooking rut the last while and have not made anything new AT ALL...just old standbys that are already on the blog.

I had planned on making these tonight, but as I was looking at our schedule, I realized I didn't have enough time.  I quickly tried to think of what I had on hand.

I knew I had this:

And I knew I had lots of these (we have chickens!)


So I decided to throw together a frittata.  I think of a frittata as having more mix-ins, especially pasta.  I would never mix pasta into a quiche.  To me, the eggs are the MAIN part of a quiche, but in a frittata, the eggs are simply holding together the main parts...in this case, noodles and veggies.

I grabbed lots of vegetables from my fridge:
1 cup spinach
1/2 small zucchini, sliced and quartered
1/4 cup diced bell peppers
4 cherry tomatoes
3 mushrooms

I sauteed all the veggies....

(I didn't toss in the spinach until the end, after these were tender.)

Stirred in the leftover spaghetti noodles....


Then poured the egg mixture over the entire pan.   You shouldn't stir after pouring.  Just try to pour evenly over the noodles.
Egg mixture: 6 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cheese, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper. Beaten together.

Cook on stove top, covered, for about 8 minutes over medium heat.  Until eggs are set.  It will get a little dark on the bottom, but not too bad.  If you turn the heat lower to avoid that, just increase the cook time by 3-4 minutes.



Then put the skillet into the oven under the broiler. Broil for 2-4 minutes until it is browned on the top.  Then be very careful when you remove the skillet to remember, remember, remember(!!) that the handle is PIPING HOT!!

Lon and I have learned our lesson on this one.  The last time I made a frittata, I took it out of the oven, set it on the stovetop, got distracted for a second and came back and wrapped my hand around the large metal handle.  OW...it makes me shiver just to remember.  I screamed out, ran over to the sink, and JUST as I am turning on the cold water, I hear Lon scream out in pain!  He had come downstairs and saw the handle pointing out from the oven and tried to move it.  We were both plunging our hands in cold water and even though we were in pain, we were laughing hysterically.  So this time, he took one of our oven mittens and just put it onto the handle of the pan...so we wouldn't have a repeat! ; )

This was a super fast meal and I really liked how it turned out.  It would be good with any kind of cheese...even some cottage cheese thrown in there would help it be creamy.  I just used cheddar.  Oh, I almost forgot.  My favorite thing about this was that we ate it with our home canned salsa and it was divine!!