The other day when I was grocery shopping in a German store, I noticed that they had a lot of root vegetables that I had never really seen/noticed before. One time I found purple carrots, which were awesome, so I thought maybe these were red carrots. As it turned out, they are radishes. I had never seen them in that shape before. I am not a fan of radishes and their strong aftertaste, so I wasn't sure how I was going to use them. They were super cheap, so I thought about just tossing them into the bio bin. Then I asked myself, "what would Nonna do?" As children of WWII, my in-laws were very adamant about not wasting food. They found a use for every morsel that came into the house. Even when the cupboard/refrigerator was bare, Nonna would find a way to turn those simple ingredients into a feast. So, today, I channeled my inner-Nonna and decided to look at some of the ingredients that I had sitting around and come up with something. Often, when Nonna had a couple types veggies and some eggs on hand, a frittata was a great go-to meal that could be ready fairly quickly. If she had a lot of potatoes, she made a potato frittata. If she had an abundance of green onions or zucchini, she threw them into a frittata. Today I had an abundance of radishes. I also had some leeks and green onion already cut up and left over from another recipe. I had a small onion, a couple spears of asparagus, half of a red-pepper, and a potato that needed to be used. Now, I don't measure anything. I just made sure that all of the veggies were cut up into small chunks (*Tip: To speed things up, since potatoes take much longer than the other ingredients to get softened, I microwaved it for a few minutes to give it a head start...Nonna would have cooked them first and then added the other veggies). Here's the recipe: Frittata Ingredients: Olive Oil 4 eggs Splash of milk 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese Salt Pepper Garlic powder Cut up veggies of your choice* into small chunks Some of the other combinations that Nonna and I have used included : potatoes, white onions, green onions, zucchini, red peppers, leeks, and artichokes. Directions: In a frying pan (non-stick is best), add olive oil and veggies over low heat. Saute until the veggies are soft. While the veggies are cooking, beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add a splash of milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Mix well. Add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and mix well. When the veggie mixture has softened (after about 15 minutes), make sure that veggies are evenly spread across the bottom of the pan. Pour the egg mixture on top. Let it cook on low heat (uncovered) for approximately 15 minutes until the egg mixture has solidified. Note that having the pan on extreme heat will cause the veggies to stick/burn on the bottom of the pan and the top of the eggs will not be cooked enough. The secret is to cook it slowly. When the frittata appears to be almost firm on the top, take a handful of Parmesan cheese and sprinkle it on the top. Take it off the heat and cover with a lid. It will melt the cheese and solidify the egg. Italians consider the frittata to be a lunch or dinner item. Serve with some crusty bread and a green salad and you've got a tasty, nutritious meal. However, the American in me absolutely loves this as a breakfast food. I pair it with some toast and a piece of fruit and it's a great start to my day. It took me many years to master the art of frittata making. I have come to realize that the quality of the pan, cooking on low heat, and including the Parmesan cheese in the egg mixture were the secrets to making a great frittata. Buon appetito! Bonus Recipe: Radish PestoEven after using a bunch of radishes in my frittata, I still had a bunch of radishes left over. It made me think back to my pesto recipe in a prior post. What if I chopped up some radishes with a handful of basil that is growing in my garden? Since I had a lot of almonds on hand, I also included them to thicken up the mixture. Here's what I did: Ingredients: 1/8 c. Olive Oil 100 g of radishes Handful of basil leaves 25 g of almonds Salt Pepper Garlic Powder 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese Directions:
Chop up the radish chunks, basil and almonds in a food processor. Add olive oil and Parmesan cheese to the mixture and pulse it until the mixture has been reduced to almost a fine paste. You can add more olive oil to thin it out according to your own preferences. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste and mix again thoroughly. For a little spicy kick, add red pepper flakes. Pour over hot pasta such as spaghetti, linguini, penne. Top with some more Parmesan cheese. Buon Appetito!
1 Comment
|
About CathyI'm a wife, mother, friend, educator, traveler, creator, tech lover, (and much more) inspired by Brene Brown's call to being vulnerable and daring greatly. Archives
September 2020
Categories |