Week 5: Veggie Pasta Frittata

This is a recipe that I have made before, although I omitted the pasta the first time. It was passed on to me by my mom, who omitted the veggies the first time. Basically, this was a new hybrid that the Lodge (that's the name for our house because it looks sort of like a log cabin) has never experienced before. I really love lots of veggies in my pasta, so it sort of made sense for me to try it this way. Mom wanted prosciutto in it, but I just did that a few weeks ago. Moreover, I wanted this to be a meatless meal, especially since my last three recipes have contained meat.

That said, I'm not sure where the original recipe came from. Some say an Italian chef had some leftover pasta and a daughter and a local chicken farmer had some extra eggs and a son, so they married the girl and boy and made this dish to celebrate. It's rumored that the chicken farmer wept tears of joy as he was eating the frittata. Or maybe it was just that his only son was wed that day. Who can tell for certain?

Getting back to reality, my mom sent me an e-mail with the recipe in it after she tried it herself and thought it would be fun for me to make last year when I was living in a TLA (Transitional Living Area, an on-campus housing option meant to function like an apartment or home). I didn't get around to making it until the beginning of this school year, when I invited my friend Hannah (great name, huh?) over to cook dinner with me one night. I was very pleased with the results, so I was eager to make it again for my family, this time adding the pasta. Cooked mushrooms are one of my favorite veggies, so those feature prominently in this recipe. The first time, I used spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms, a combination that worked really well for me, so I wanted to duplicate the trio for the second go. Below is the recipe, which I have modified from the original in order to better suit my style and preferences (I hope the Italian chef and his chicken-farming compatriot wouldn't mind this variation).

Ingredients:
1/4 box of your favorite pasta, cooked al dente (I used elbow macaroni because I like the tiny pieces)
2 tomatoes, diced
About 1 cup of fresh baby spinach
About 5-6 button mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
6-8 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan (or other cheese of your choice)
2 tbsp sour cream
1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
About 1/4 tsp salt
About 1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup pasta sauce (again, your choice)
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook the garlic until tender, about one minute (try not to brown it).

3. Stir in the pasta and spread this mixture evenly into a baking dish.

4. Whisk together the eggs, cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, basil, and veggies.

5. Pour the veggie-egg mixture over the top of the pasta, then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (very low estimate) or until the eggs are set (no liquid-y center!).

6. Let the frittata sit for five minutes after comes out of the oven. Slice as you wish and spoon the pasta sauce over each slice, garnishing with more cheese if you desire.

Note: The sides of the frittata will get really brown, which you can see if you use a glass baking dish. Don't worry about this. It happened to me, and the end result was perfectly fine.

I overcooked the garlic on this one. I think I had the heat up too high in the pan. I removed the garlic as soon as I saw some browning, then I mixed in the pasta as quickly as I could. I don't think the result was too disastrous. It still tasted pretty good. I just wanted to give you fair warning and such.

Also, the spinach was very hard to mix into the eggs, which is why I had to use eight eggs instead of six. I think this resulted in a longer cooking time. As such, I would recommend wilting the spinach a bit in the microwave before you put it into the egg mixture.

Overall, this was a really easy recipe to make, especially since I precooked the pasta and pre-shredded the cheese before I even officially made dinner. I guess I just wanted to save time, which was a good thing because the dish took 40 minutes to cook in our oven. I was pretty stressed out that night, and this made me anxious that the dish wasn't cooking properly and that parts of it would be burned before the other parts were done. However, Mom instructed me to put some foil over the top of the baking dish (shiny side down, like with the Mediterranean chicken packets) to help with the cooking. Basically, patience is the biggest virtue you can possess when making this dish (i.e., don't be the helicopter chef who checks it every two minutes (*cough*me*cough*); you can let it go five minutes or so before taking another peek; otherwise, it will seem never to cook). Eventually, everything turned out fine, but there was just that brief span of time when it all felt like a big crisis. Such is my worry-wart personality. Yet I can't complain too much because this was astronomically better than the Orange Chicken Debacle. I feel like that will become an old family story. Years from now, I will tell the latest generation of Hart descendents about the worst cooking experience of my life, and I'll laugh about it. Then I'll make a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and a mug of hot chocolate to console myself while I watch Sleepless in Seattle or read a James Herriot book.

Anyway, we all really enjoyed dinner. Mom made some garlic bread and broccoli to go along with it, so we were fully loaded in the veggie department. That always makes me very happy. There's even an equation. It goes Hannah + veggies = peace and contentment (or the HVPAC Equation). Truthfully, I think the whole pasta texture is really weird with the eggs, but Mom and my brother still liked the meal. In future, I think I'll just stick with veggies and maybe meat when I feel like it, and Mom can make all the pasta frittatas she wants.

Another great thing about this dish is that you can add literally anything edible to it. Honestly. Frittata can be anything you make it. Love Italian food? Just make it like we did. Mexican? No problem. Some cooked taco meat, cheddar cheese, and jalapeño peppers added to the mix would do very nicely. You could even spoon some salsa and sour cream over the top. What about Chinese? Got you covered, there, too. Just add some frozen veggie medley (you know, the stuff with the diced carrots, peas, and corn) plus some chopped cooked shrimp and maybe some ginger. The meal would be complete with a dash of soy sauce and maybe a side of wontons or pot stickers. As you can see, all you need is the egg base, and the rest can be completely up to you. You can even have this dish in the morning for breakfast, too. That's the great thing about eggs. They are an anytime food. "Incredible, edible egg," indeed!

This is another dish that is both attractive and gastronomically satisfying. Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering.