By Kathryn McLean
If you’re looking for a new dish, consider a family-sized egg dish. Try a frittata, Spanish omelette (or tortilla) or a quiche.
Frittata is sort of an omelette with add-ins mixed in rather than folded inside. Traditional Spanish omelette is similar to frittata, but most often filled with just sliced potatoes and onion. And quiche is a baked egg dish with added cream as well as assorted fillings.
More than simply a scrambled or fried egg, these dishes can serve four or more people. They can all be eaten warm from cooking or cool from the fridge. Any of them can be served for any meal. And each dish easily becomes part of a bigger meal alongside additional items, whether toast or a mixed salad, fruit, bacon or more.
Here’s the breakdown for each one:
Frittata is a mixed omelette with no cream or milk added. It typically starts with diced onion being cooked until soft in a large (8-10”) frying pan coated with a little oil or melted butter. Then add cubed boiled potatoes and a handful of peas, stirring until they’re coated in the butter. Add eight beaten eggs but don’t stir. Lower the heat to low and cook gently until the eggs are almost set, and just a little egg remains uncooked on the top. Transfer the pan to the oven and finish cooking under the broiler. You can add any other ingredients you like. Roasted peppers or mushrooms, cheese, herbs. Frittata makes a nice sandwich, too. Simply slice a couple of wedges and lay them in a crusty bun.
Spanish omelette or Spanish tortilla is very similar to frittata. Start with thinly sliced potatoes and onions. Cook both onions and potatoes in oil, then add beaten eggs. You can use the same size pan and number of eggs. The amount of onion and potato will vary depending on their size, but generally a small onion, and a medium-sized potato. Again, don’t mix the ingredients in the pan, simply let it cook slowly over low heat. To finish cooking the top of the omelette, gently loosen the edges from the pan and slide the omelette out of the pan onto a plate or cutting board,.Then return it to the pan, wet side down, to finish cooking for another minute. A traditional Spanish omelette doesn’t usually have many additional ingredients, but you can add what you like.
Quiche is probably the most widely known of these three egg dishes. It also requires more ingredients and time. Quiche combines eggs with milk and cream, which gets poured into a pastry shell, over additional ingredients, including grated cheese. Then it’s baked fully in the oven. You can make a pie crust or buy a box of frozen shells from the grocery store. Add-in ingredients can, again, be up to you. Consider the items you have in the fridge, what you like, which ingredients you think taste good together. Swiss cheese with cooked bacon and roasted or sundried tomatoes. Sliced red onion and spinach with crumbled feta. Cheddar and broccoli.
To make quiche, beat four eggs with ½ cup cream and ¼ cup milk. Put the fillings in the shell; it should be more than half full. Pour the egg mixture over the fillings, and put the uncooked quiche in its pie pan on a baking tray. Bake in a preheated oven (375 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30-45 minutes. The eggs should be set but still jiggly.
Serve any of these dishes at any meal, alone or with salads, crusty bread or fruit.