For years, I've made scrambled eggs on Sunday mornings, first for my husband, then for my kids too. All three of them love scrambled eggs, and my husband claims that mine are the best he's ever had (aww). He's even dared suggest that my fine touch rivals my mother's. When you mess with the mother-in-law, it's serious.
So apparently I make good scrambled eggs. Which is surprising considering I don't like scrambled eggs! I've made mounds of scrambled eggs over the years, and never touch a bite. Nor omelettes, though I can take quiches if they have enough other stuff in them. Me, I'm a soft-boiled or sunny-side-up sort of person.
But it was time to expand my mixed-egg repertoire. After a miserable omelette failure, I turned to an increasing favorite, The Joy of Cooking, and came across its Zucchini Frittata recipe. This was just the ticket.
I've tried this several times now, and each time have changed enough variables that I'm nowhere close to converging on a signature dish. Different pan, different proportions of ingredients, different cook times and heats...each time it's a random experiment, further complicated by the fact that I don't like scrambled eggs. But I'm on the right track.
My new love affair with red onions is the first improvement over the original recipe. Having had some handy cubed pancetta from Trader Joe's was also a fabulous addition. The original recipe calls for sliced zucchini, but I go for grated since I always seem to have some around.
The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of butter, but that was too much for my 10" cast-iron skillet, and it bubbled over the sides. That quantity of butter did work the one time I tried making it for a large group, and had to use my back-breakingly heavy Le Creuset 12" skillet (the lid itself takes two hands to lift). The nice thing about the Le Creuset skillet is that it's attractive enough to serve in, sparing you the risk of tearing it as you slide it onto another plate.
But the real key was chopped fresh basil (I had frozen some). This is an absolutely delightful and fresh touch, and renders the concoction edible to me.
The original recipe calls for finishing it under the broiler for 30-60 seconds until the top is cooked, but not browned, as a traditional frittata is not browned. But I got complaints from the peanut gallery that it wasn't cooked quite enough inside, so I've found that slight browning indicates perfect doneness.
But eggs under a broiler -- hoo-hah! Watch it verrry carefully, as it goes from gooey to browned in no time, even under my feeble broiler. Without an accurate seconds timer, I find that two little boys shouting "ONE! TWO! THREE!" (up to 30) is a reasonable, if loud and silly, substitute.
The one thing I haven't figured out yet is how to make this quickly. Scrambled eggs, I can do fridge-to-table in the time it takes to toast an English Muffin. Between the prep, cooling the zucchini and onion, and the egg-mixing, my frittata is not a quick fix.
Cooking zucchini and red onion first (this was a non-pancetta version).
(A note on the pan: this cast-iron 10" pan was left behind by a previous boyfriend, something he'd had since he left home and had since relegated to camping. It has a number 8 on it, though it is 10" in diameter. It looks like it has a repaired crack, but its cooking surface is smooth and beautifully seasoned. My guess is that it's decades old. What was a cast-off to him is a prized possession to me!)
Setting the bottom of the egg mixture in the cast-iron skillet....uh-oh, butter boiling over!
After broiling and cooling, the wayward butter has calmed down. Not super easy to slide out, though actually I like the rustic look of my cast-off pan. My Le Creuset skillet is better sliding out, or serving, all 50 pounds of it.
Cut into wedges, and voila -- a little "egg pizza."
It's going to take some refinement, but I'm going to make this one my signature egg dish. If I can ever live down the scrambled legacy, that is.
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