Frittata

FRITTATA 

W/ CARMELIZED ONION, TURKEY SAUSAGE, MUSHROOM, & SPINACH

Why is it that my most successful meals are always the "kitchen sink" recipes?

I guess there are just some culinary platforms that lend themselves well to combining nearly whatever is left over in the fridge at the end of the week producing a highly edible result - like soups, salads, and pizzas.  (I mean, what wouldn't  you put on top of a pizza?)  Well, add "frittata" to that list.

While I don't have the gastronomical or anthropological background to support this claim, I'm pretty convinced that the frittata was invented for the purpose of avoiding wastefulness.  The brunch restaurant down the street from me always has a frittata that just so happens to use ingredients on the last week's menu...hmmm.  But, imagine your average leftovers - your scraps of meat dried out by reheating, your vegetable side dishes turned to mush in the microwave - and consider the bright future they might have when combined with some eggs and baked into a healthy comfort food!  Free those leftovers from their Tupperware prisons and give them new life!

This recipe was thrown together from a number of fresh ingredients I had lying around in-wait, and certainly a whole range of meats and vegetables would work.  I just happened to have onion, mushroom, spinach, and ground turkey.  Of course, you can spin a frittata into any cultural flavor spectrum by spicing your sauteed vegetables or meat with your favorites from the spice rack.  I know many a frittata adds cheese to the mix, but I wanted to keep this one as lean as possible.

So bottom line: go sautée some meats and vegetables (separately), combine with seasoning and eggs, bake, enjoy hot or cold.

Ingredients (makes 6 large servings);

• 1 lb. lean ground turkey
• 7 eggs
• 1/8 cup half and half (or cream)
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 5 oz. shitake mushrooms (or whatever you prefer), roughly chopped
• 7 oz. (1 standard bag) fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp. dill
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp. all spice
• additional salt and pepper for seasoning

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and heat 2 frying pans on the stove over medium-high heat.

In a bowl, mix the ground turkey with the fennel, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and all spice.  Sautée in a frying pan until browned and cooked through.  When done, remove and set aside in a bowl.

While your turkey cooks, chop your vegetables.  Begin cooking by adding the sliced onion to 1 tbsp. of olive oil in the second frying pan.  Season well with salt and pepper.  When dark brown and soft (this will take at least 10 minutes), add the chopped garlic for an additional 3 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, along with the stock, and cook until softened.  Finally, add the spinach and lemon juice to cook down.  Taste and add any additional salt and pepper needed.  Remove and set aside in a bowl.
Butter or spray an 8x8 glass baking dish (or any baking dish of a roughly equivalent size, depending on how deep you want your frittata).  Fill your dish with alternating layers of crumbled turkey and sautéed vegetables until almost full (I used all of my turkey and vegetables).
Whisk together your eggs and half and half, then pour into the dish.  You can press the filling down a bit to submerge in the egg, but it should barely cover the top.  That's OK, the egg will rise and expand in the oven.  Alternatively, if you have less filling, that's OK too, you'll just have an egg-ier frittata.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until cooked through.  I finished it in the broiler for a few minutes for a crusty top. 

Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.  It is great reheated or served cold, so you could certainly make it ahead of time if you were hosting brunch.