This week, Cooking Italy has us choosing any frittata of our choosing. That leaves the field wide open! A frittata is basically an omelet with the filling cooked into the egg rather than having the egg folded around the filling. I’ve been making them for years, using all kinds of ingredients! I started making frittatas when I was in my 20’s as a way to feed a crowd of men when I had a LOT of eggs and only some odds and ends to put with it. Serving up thick wedges of “think of it as an omelet in the round” frittata always worked out for me, because it always tasted great!
I selected Marcella’s Stuffed Spaghetti Frittata with tomato, mozzarella and ham…in my case bacon…frittata as a supper entree. It doesn’t get much easier than this… In the time it takes the pasta to cook, the tomato sauce cooks, and you have time to dice the cheese. Prepare a bowl to toss the pasta with the sauce ingredients there…toss your pasta and let it cool…keep tossing it to cool it faster! I used bacon instead of ham…while the tomato sauce was cooking, I was cooking diced bacon on another burner, and tossing the pasta too. It was kind of like juggling there for a few minutes! *giggle* Since both the tomato sauce and the cooked bacon were both pretty hot, I mixed them together to cool. As soon as the pasta was cool enough to add the eggs to (have to make sure the pasta doesn’t cook the egg!), I beat them together and proceeded onward!
Here’s where I jumped away from the recipe a bit… I preheated my oven to 425° and put one shelf at the very top of the oven. When it was time to put everything together… I heated my sauté pan (one I knew could go into the oven) over a burner as directed with the butter and added the ingredients as directed with one change…I put the tomato-bacon mixture on the first layer of spaghetti, then added the mozzarella. After that, I added the other layer of spaghetti and popped the whole thing into the oven for 20 minutes. Perfect.
Tasting Notes~
This doesn’t look like much…but the flavors…oh my! I cut it into 6 pieces…and I’m glad we didn’t have guests for supper. I wouldn’t serve less than 1/4 of this as a serving. 1/6 is a nice appetizer serving, but for an entreé serving, serve at least a quarter of the frittata. One…it’s that good. Two…it will take that much to achieve the desired fullness quotient. That’s about 2 ounces of pasta, with eggs and goodies, and that’s about right. The bright flavor from the tomato is just wonderful…and the bacon added a wonderful smoky touch. We really liked it and wouldn’t hesitate to have this again. Bruce said he loved the texture of the spaghetti and the mozzarella combined. The silkiness of the cheese really did it for him. Way to go, Angela!! Thank you for introducing us to another dish that’s another keeper!
Can't Believe We Ate... 