Spanish Potato Pepper Frittata

Prior to today, I've never made a frittata. I love them but since I don't have a skillet that can go into the oven, I haven't tried to make this dish. Then I was perusing Moosewood Restaurant's Low-Fat Favorites which discusses a relatively easy stove top method that I decided to try out.

My cooking buddy and I discovered this recipe in a round about way. We first found a recipe for Citrus-Dressed Asparagus which the book said could accompany the frittata so we decided to make both for a dinner time meal. The asparagus were over-cooked unfortunately but the frittata was amazing.

The eggs just barely hold all the veggies together but provides enough to allow for the beautiful golden brown color and a wonderful flavor when you do get a bit of egg! The final product is a light delicious frittata that can be eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner and isn't too egg-y like some frittata's may be.

Makes 4-6 servings
Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
-2 c sliced onions (thin strips)
-2 bell peppers, 1 red and 1 green (We used 1 orange pepper)
-1 cubanelle or other mild fresh chile
-1 pound potato (about 3 medium), scrubbed
-2 tsp olive oil
-1/2 tsp dried thyme
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 whole eggs
-6 egg whites
-2 tbsp water
-1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Preparation
Cut onions thinly and potatoes into 1/8 inch slices.

In an 11 or 12-inch non-stick skillet, heat 1 tsp olive oil. Add the onions and potatoes for 5 minutes. Add the bell peppers, cubanelle, thyme, and 1/4 tsp of the salt. Cover and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Remove the skillet from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, water, remaining 1/4 tsp of salt, and black pepper until blended. Stir the potatoes, onions, and peppers into the eggs.

Coat the bottom of the skillet with the remaining tsp of oil and return it to medium heat. When the skillet is hot, pour in the potato-egg mixture and distribute the vegetables evenly. Cover and cook for 5-8 minutes (for me it was 5 minutes), until the edges are firm and the bottom has browned. For me, this took 5 minutes and when I moved the side of the frittata away from the edge of the pan I could see that it was firm and brown.

Place a large, flat plate or pizza pan over the skillet and carefully flip the skillet over so that the frittata falls onto the plate. Slide the frittata back into the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes more, until the eggs are fully cooked. For me this, was about 3 minutes.

The trickiest part of this recipe is negotiating the flip. I used a dinner plate because I could place it into the skillet such that it was lightly pressing against the frittata. I thought this would be be better (than the pizza pan method) because the during the flip, the frittata would not move around and lose it's great shape. I placed one hand on the plate, applying gentle pressure to keep the plate in place, and flipped. The pizza pan, being larger in diameter than the pan, would have to be placed on top of the skillet such that there would be about 2.5 inches between the pan and frittata. Too much room for the frittata to jiggle around in.

This recipe takes about 45 minutes or so but it's so good, it's worth the extra effort. The cookbook suggest eating as is which is what I did but also says sour cream and salsa are good accompaniments which I think would be awesome! I had some sour cream in the fridge and over looked it!

I have pictures but Blogger won't post them even when it says that it has completed the upload.