Make a Frittata with Your Leftover Pasta
Photos: Ed Anderson
Leftover Pasta Frittata
I prefer a frittata to be mostly the filling, with egg providing a supporting structure. To avoid unappealingly dry overfluff, I cook frittatas on the stovetop and never in the oven. It’s a little trickier, but it keeps the texture right and the unctuous flavor factor high. Having the filling hot when it’s mixed with the eggs helps with the flipping step by sort of cooking the frittata from the inside and avoiding overbrowning the bottom before the center is set.
A frittata tastes good hot, better after it has cooled a half hour or so, and possibly best after it has had a chance to regroup on the countertop for an afternoon.
Everyone’s favorite at our house is leftover pasta frittata. The recipe below is for any sauced pasta, but if you have leftover unsauced spaghetti, you can go for a crispier effect: in a couple tablespoons of oil, fry the pasta, spread like a cake. Leave it to get crispy and browned on the bottom, pressing down once or twice on the pasta with a spatula. Turn the heat to low, add the egg mixture—with or without greens—and carry on.
Leftover pasta
6 eggs
¼ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus oil or butter for the skillet
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch chard greens, stems torn off, washed, chopped, and sautéed (optional)
Start by warming last night’s puttanesca, pesto, or primavera—or any other sauced pasta—in a skillet with a couple tablespoons of water. Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk very well, until streaks no longer appear. Mix in the cheese, oil, salt, and a grind of pepper. When the pasta is warm but before it starts to sizzle, stir it into the egg mixture.
Coat the skillet with a film of oil and add the cooked greens, stirring occasionally until they’re heated through. Stir the warm greens into the bowl with the egg mixture.
Return the skillet to medium-low heat. Add a coating of oil or butter and pour in the egg mixture, distributing the greens throughout if they’re clumping up. Keep the heat low and rotate the skillet a quarter turn occasionally if the egg seems to be cooking unevenly around the edges. When the perimeter of the frittata looks set and the center is still somewhat liquid, about 8 minutes, run a table knife around the side of the skillet to loosen the frittata and carefully slide a metal spatula under it to loosen the underside.
Invert a plate over the skillet and take the handle in one hand and put the other on the plate. Here comes the exciting part: you’re going to flip the frittata onto the plate. I admit that it can end in disaster, but you have to stay confident and strong. You don’t want it to slide onto the plate or fold over, so the motion should be up and over, not just over, and it has to happen kind of quickly. Alley-oop, and it’s on the plate and the skillet is clean.
Quickly, before the uncooked egg can overrun the plate, film the skillet with a little more oil and, with the help of the spatula, encourage the frittata back in. Don’t worry if things are looking a little Humpty Dumpty—just fit it all back together again and continue cooking over low heat. When it’s cooked through—make a crack in the middle and sneak a peek to see that the egg is all set—turn the frittata out onto a plate. The good news is that there are two sides to every frittata—if you like the looks of the top side, slide the frittata out the way you slid it in. If you like the looks of the other side better, then flip it out onto a clean plate and show that one. Let cool, slice in wedges or squares, and serve.
Reprinted from Twelve Recipes with permission from William Morrow / Harper Collins © 2014 by Cal Peternell
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