Thursday, August 2, 2007

Can I Call This A Frittata?

I decided to try something new for dinner on Monday night, something oven baked with eggs, fritatta like. It would utilize some prime pattypan squash from the garden as well as squash blossoms, new nugget potatoes, basil, and tarragon. This is what I created, ahahaha:Looks pretty good, eh?

I've looked at many frittata recipes and most start cooking the eggs on the stove and transfer to the oven to broil. But, I don't think I have the right skillet for that. So, inspired by the Fava Bean and Mint Frittata in the Chocolate and Zucchini Cookbook, I baked mine in a cake pan. Here's what I did:

I got two frying pans going on the stove (for speed) with a little olive oil in each. In one pan I cooked thin slices of patty pan in a single layer seasoned with salt and pepper until tender and slightly brown flipping them once. I took about three batches to cook the rather large squash I had on hand. I layered the squash slices in the bottom of a greased 8-inch round cake pan. You could also use another type of summer squash like zucchini in place of the patty-pan, which is a bit unusual but very delicious.

In the second frying pan, I pan fried thin slices of nugget potato (about 150g) with salt and pepper until they were lightly browned and tender. I layered these over the squash in the cake pan. I also added about 1/8 of a yellow onion sauteed on top of the potatos and 3 squash blossoms also sauteed for a very short time.

In a bowl, I beat 2 eggs with 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk, some grated Parmesan, coarsely chopped basil and tarragon, salt and pepper. I poured the egg mixture over the veggies in the pan and popped it in the oven for 16 minutes until the egg was set and beginning to brown. I cut it into quarters and ate the whole thing with a nice sliced tomato.

Here's one splendiferous slice: It was good. What's not to like out of eggs, potato, and summer squash. I loooove summer squash. Actually, I quite like winter squash as well. It was my first time eating squash blossoms and they were. . . kind of unremarkable in this form. They looked pretty but the dish would still be tasty without them. I guess they'd be good deep fried, but I don't deep fry at home. The squash itself was silky and slightly sweet while the potatoes provided their satisfying starchy goodness, amped up by the pan frying.

It was quite a special little supper for me and I'll probably make something similar again.