There are a handful of cookbooks we turn to when we're looking to perfect a classic recipe. Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food has become one of those books. In it, we found three great tips for making the perfect frittata.
A Better Frittata: Tips from Alice Waters
We love books like this one because they offer great information about the basics of a recipe. Once you've got those down, you can get creative with flavors and ingredients. Here's what we learned about making a frittata:
- Cook the vegetables first. This may seem like a no-brainer, but we think it's worth a mention. It's obvious that dense vegetables like potatoes need to be cooked before the eggs are added. But, in the past, we've tossed in raw, quick-cooking vegetables like spinach or mushrooms assuming that by the time the eggs are cooked, they'll have cooked enough too. That may be, but they also release moisture while cooking, and we don't want a watery frittata.
- Salt the eggs just before you cook them. Pre-salting the eggs and setting them aside while you cook the vegetables or meat will make them watery.
- Combine eggs with other ingredients in a bowl, not the pan. If any of these tips could be called "controversial," this is probably it. Many recipes call for eggs to be added directly to the pan after other ingredients have been cooked. Waters suggests combining everything in a bowl and then pouring the mixture into a clean pan. She doesn't offer any hard science to back up the suggestion, just that the method has given her the best results. We gave it a try and it worked out well. It might not be absolutely necessary, but it did help to evenly distribute all the ingredients.
What are your best frittata tips?
More Frittata Tips and Recipes
Recipe Review: Zucchini-Potato Frittata
Recipe: Lemon Frittata with Leeks and Goat Cheese
Feeding a Crowd: Frittata Squares
Weeknight Recipe: Potato, Red Pepper, and Feta Frittata
Tip: Put Leftover Pasta in Your Frittata
- Amazon: The Art of Simple Food, $23.10
(Images: Clockwise from top, Emma Christensen, Faith Durand, Elizabeth Passarella)
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It makes sense to mix the vegetables and eggs in a bowl and then add back to the pan. Otherwise, the eggs start cooking the minute they hit the pan as you pour them over the vegetables. That's not a huge problem, but they'll clump up quickly while you're still trying to get the veggies spread around evenly.
view Indy Jeffrey's profile
I'm just reading a book about Alice Waters: fascinating story.
Interesting idea on combining the eggs with the cooked vegetables in a bowl: would have never thought of that.
view orchidgirl1979's profile
I also enjoy Bittman's advice—more vegetables, less egg—as well. Maybe not for every fritatta, bu it is rather tasty.
view missmae's profile
I love layering my thinly sliced pre-cooked veggies on top of the fritatta as is pictured above with the zucchini version. I think this gives it a really elegant look without bogging the egg down while it cooks. I used grilled eggplant once on top of a chard fritatta and it was wonderful.
view BigGirlPhoebz's profile
Here's his article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/dining/15mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining
view missmae's profile
I like to mix lighter vegetables with the eggs but leave heavier ones in the pan and evenly distribute the egg mixture on top. I find that if I mix something like potatoes with the eggs, they sink to the bottom of the bowl, so when I empty the bowl into the skillet, they all slide out in one clump.
view ottan's profile
Cook's Illustrated tested the lore about salting eggs before or after cooking in the June/July 2008 issue. They learned that salt weakens the protein bonds in the eggs, leading to more tender eggs, so salting before cooking was good, while salting after cooking (these were scrambled eggs) led to harder, rubbery eggs.
Then they tried again, wondering if salting earlier would lead to even more tender eggs—it did not. They tested with salting the eggs an hour before cooking and just before cooking, and tasters found no differences. They therefore recommend salting beaten eggs for scrambles (and probably for fritattas? frittati?) just before cooking, but salting up to an hour in advance made no difference in taste or texture.
The link, for their Web site subscribers, is here.
view mdeatherage's profile
I've always done #'s 1 and 3 but never gave much thought to exactly when in the process I add my salt. Although since the same principle applies to salting a salad, it makes sense that it would trasnfer over to eggs due to its high water content. Interesting.
view rosebud's profile
Frittati for sure :)
view thehalfie's profile