I have always maintained that if you have eggs in your refrigerator, you have the makings for a perfectly good dinner. Whipping up a quick omelet will get dinner on the table far quicker than ordering pizza. Add a green salad and you have a complete meal that is perfect for when it feels like there’s nothing in the house.
If you have a few vegetables on hand, you can get a little more ambitious and make a fritatta. Frittatas are less fussy than omelets in my opinion – no flipping required – and bake in the oven at the end. So instead of babysitting your dinner, you can use that passive time to set the table, make a salad or wash a few dishes. (Since my husband does the dishes, my motivation here is a little murky. I’m just as likely to use that time to check Facebook or pour myself a glass of wine.)
Frittatas are also a great way to repurpose leftovers, such as sautéed vegetables, odd bits of chicken or ham and any cheese you happen to have laying around. In the case of this recipe, I was able to put some leftover potatoes that were languishing in the fridge to good use. (Although you could easily make this recipe with raw potatoes by dicing them finely and sautéing them until tender, slightly longer than the five minutes called for below.)
Any kind of leafy greens that you can lay your hands on will pump up the nutritional value of your everyday frittata and pair exceptionally well with any of the ingredients mentioned above — other veggies, potatoes, meat and cheese. In this case, I was working with a surfeit of turnip greens leftover from my adventures in pickling. Five bunches of Hakurei turnips left me with two measly pints of pickles but masses of turnip greens.
Turnip greens have a bad reputation for bitterness, but that is less of an issue with younger, smaller leaves such as those that top the little Hakurei turnips. It would have been a crime to throw away these greens, which are a nutritional powerhouse, so I made a garlicky pesto with two-thirds of them. But that effort still left me with plenty of greens to work into that night’s dinner. Four cups of greens, which is what I call for in this recipe, came from two bunches of turnips. It may seem like a lot but they cook down to almost nothing.
The only cautionary note I have about turnips greens is to wash them well. Mine were noticeably sandy. I soaked them in several changes of cold water and then dried them in a salad spinner. Also, be sure to remove the woody stems.
If you don’t have turnip greens, you can substitute any dark leafy green from mustard greens to spinach. You could even use arugula! So, if your early spring CSA share or farmers market trip leaves you overloaded with all kinds of mystery greens, I would definitely think hard about working them into a frittata.
- 4 TB butter
- 2 cups diced, cooked potato (Can substitute raw potato - dice finely)
- 4 cups well-packed, chopped turnip greens
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 10 eggs
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 oz. goat cheese
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Place butter in a 12-inch nonstick, oven-proof skillet set over medium heat.
- When butter is melted, add diced potato and toss to coat with butter.
- Saute potato over medium heat until browned on one side, about five minutes - longer if using raw potato. Season well with salt and pepper.
- While potatoes are browning, beat together the eggs and milk in a large bowl and set aside.
- Add turnip greens to skillet and stir combine. Continue to saute until greens are wilted, about two to three minutes.
- Add sliced garlic and saute an additional minute.
- Pour beaten egg and milk mixture over the vegetables in the skillet and transfer skillet to the oven.
- Crumble goat cheese over the frittata.
- Bake frittata until the eggs are set in the middle, twelve to fifteen minutes.
- Invert frittata onto a plate and cut into wedges.