Every now and then it’s time for Frittata for supper. Such great food, full of flavour and perfect to finish left overs in your fridge, or just to cook a simple, tasty and cheap meal. Some people really don’t like eggs for dinner. I can understand that, but for myself, when talking about Spanish Tortilla or Italian Frittata (kind of the same thing) with herbs, potato, garlic, red onion, pepper and (optional) some vegetables it’s delicious! But if you can’t do frittata for dinner, you can have it as breakfast or lunch, too. Frittata isn’t that difficult to make, but having said that: a poorly maid frittata is just awful. The Mr is a great frittata maker and he always calls it ‘krieltjes-omelette’. A ‘krieltje’ in Dutch is a type of  small, tasteful potato, ideal for frying. So what he actuals means with ‘krieltjes-omelette’ is an Italian style frittata. Today I will share a basic recipe with you, but the nice thing about this dish is: you can change, add and leave as much as you like. Just see what’s in the house. If you don’t have a red onion but some spring onions? Use that. No paprika in the house but a nice courgette, or mushrooms? Use it. It’s all OK. And if you make too much, don’t worry: next day cold for lunch is delicious also.

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

6 eggs
1 red onion, finely chopped or in rings
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 red chilli pepper (optional, can leave it out if one doesn’t like spicy)
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 red or green bell pepper, in strips or cubes
handful of garden peas (fresh or from freezer)
2-3 potatoes, peeled and in cubes
100 ml cottage cheese, or cream
80 gram of Cheddar, Gruyère or Gouda cheese, grated
dried herbs as thyme, rosemary or oregano
1/2 a teaspoon of paprika powder or Cayenne pepper
fresh herbs as parsley, chives or coriander
olive oil or butter
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

Optional: serve with side salad or Ciabatta

Method

Ok, this is very easy:

Preheat the oven grill to 200ºC.

Start with heating some olive oil or butter in a medium to big size frying pan- If you have use a heavy cast-iron pan for it, which you can place in the oven. If you don’t have you can skip the oven part-.

Sauté the onions for a few minutes. Then add the potatoes and fry until golden brown. Add the strips of paprika, garlic and (optional) red chilli now as well and fry and stir in a few minutes.

Whisk the eggs together with the cottage cheese (or a dash of cream), a good amount of black pepper, half of the grated cheese sea salt and Italian dried garden herbs such as oregano, thyme and rosemary. Also add some paprika powder or Cayenne powder to taste.

Add the tomatoes, peas and the egg-mixture to the pan and stir a few minutes. Then sprinkle the other half of the grated cheese over it, and place the frittata under a hot oven grill and give it a 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it as a frittata can burn easily. On the photos with this article it seems like my frittata is burnt but actually it’s just right. When you are happy with it, take out of the oven and finish with some fresh herbs as parsley, chives or coriander. Serve with pepper and salt, and if you like you can make a small side salad with it. For me this isn’t necessary if there are already vegetables in the frittata.

If you don’t have a cast-iron oven resistant pan or just like to be lazy: Skip the oven part and just place the lid on a normal frying pan with the frittata and wait for about 8-10 minutes, or until happy with the result. Finish off with the herbs and serve!

You can serve Italian frittata with salad or Ciabatta, or just ‘as it is’.
Bon Appétit!

The frittata on this photo looks burnt, but is actually just perfect.