Saturday, April 6, 2013

Eggs + Pepperoni = Pizza Frittata

Husband Jeff loves pizza.  He feels that he has to have pizza every so often, or his life is just missing something.  But not just any pizza, it has to be standard red-sauce pizza with pepperoni.  Sausage pizza or 'The Works' counts as having pizza, but specialty pizzas like a white pizza with no meat wouldn't count.  So this recipe was a good way to meet his pizza quota.

Inspiration

Rachel Ray Pizza Frittata (for the pizza ingredient ideas)
and Cheap Healthy Good Roasted Red Pepper, Artichoke, Olive, and Parmesan Frittata (for the base recipe since I've used before and I know it fits in my pan)

I totally didn't plan for it, but this recipe was a great way to use up the random bits of things I had from previous recipes and leftovers.  Of course customize it for whatever flavors you like and have on hand.  

Cutting it up.
To make it dairy-free, skip the cheese.  To make it vegetarian, use your favorite vegetarian meat substitute or skip any sort of meat-type product and go with all veggies.

Ingredients

Peppers & onions in the pan.
  • 6 eggs, beaten (I had the equivalent of four eggs using egg substitute+ 2 regular eggs)
  • onion, diced (frozen)
  • bell pepper, diced (frozen)
  • spinach, chopped (frozen)
  • garlic, minced (from a jar)
  • pepperoni, cut into quarters (frozen)
  • artichoke hearts (leftover from salads on Sunday)
  • cooked sliced zucchini, diced (leftover from Sunday)
  • sprig of fresh oregano (remainder from recipe on Sunday)
  • shredded cheese (frozen)
  • salt & pepper
  • flat-leaf parsley (leftover from recipe on Sunday)

Just added the eggs.

Directions 

I sprayed an oven-safe skillet/pan and put it over medium heat to saute my onions and bell peppers.   Once those looked sufficiently not-frozen-anymore and starting to cook, I added the garlic, frozen spinach, and frozen pepperoni.  I made sure the pepperoni started to brown a little to really enhance the flavor. 

Turn on the broiler.

Cook for a bit and add more stuff!
Before you add the eggs, turn down the heat to medium.   (This is a step I missed and my frittata ended up a little too brown... ok, almost black on the bottom.)

Pour in the eggs.  Without stirring, let the eggs cook for about three minutes.

Hot out of the oven.
At this point you can add the rest of the ingredients that didn't need to be cooked ahead of time, for me this was the artichoke hearts, zucchini, oregano, shredded cheese, salt & pepper, and parsley.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes (make sure bottom isn't getting over-cooked!) and then put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to finish cooking the top.

BIG TIP: To take it out of the oven, side a potholder on the handle so you don't accidentally grab it later and burn yourself.

Loosen the edges by running a spatula around the frittata and then cut into wedges or whatever shapes you want. 

Verdict

Pizza for dinner, without all the carbs.

Husband Jeff and I liked this even though the bottom was almost burnt.  I thought it was great because it was all ingredients I loved.  Sonny D normally loves pizza but he had a lot of other foods he was more interested in, so I don't know if he really ate much. 

Eggs are a great way to make a quick and nutritious meal.  This would also be great in a taco version, with taco meat, veggies, cheese, etc. and then tucking a slice of the resulting frittata into a corn tortilla. I've done something similar where we used scrambled eggs to fill hard taco shells rather than meat. 

Wanna Chat?

I turned off the 'leave a comment' feature, so if you want to share what you're thinking about this or anything else, drop me an email at jhk1013 (at) gmail.com. It's so much more cozy than a comment, plus we can have a real conversation!