Brunch Week: Mediterranean Frittata
It’s #BrunchWeek! A whole week to celebrate my favorite meal of the week– and not just any old wait-in-line overpriced restaurant brunch, but the best kind of brunch: the homemade kind.
I hope you’ve already been enjoying recipes from my fellow #BrunchWeek bloggers, who kicked off the week on Sunday, and who have now posted five days of amazing brunch recipes and giveaways! (Scroll down for links!)
| _________________ | “I don’t get why people like brunch. What’s the benefit of combining break dancing and lunch?” – Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock |
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When I go out to brunch, I might pause to consider the French toast for a moment, but usually I’m more of the savory type. Brunch to me means eggs, and something savory– maybe even spicy. I am helpless at the sight of “huevos rancheros” on a menu and will rarely order anything else. At home it’s the same way: we are all about eggs in my house– my favorite brunch to prepare at home with my fiancée, Paula, is chilaquiles verdes with roasted tomatillo salsa, while huevos rancheros makes regular weekday morning appearances.
This take on eggs is less Mexican and more Mediterranean: it has little ingredient odes to Spain, Italy, and Greece.
It resembles a tortilla española (Spanish omelette) in its use of thin slivers of perfectly cooked potatoes, which serve as a “bottom crust” for the frittata. So it requires no crazy amounts of butter in any quiche crust, and no crazy amounts of cream like in a quiche, either. This is healthier fare (if you can call anyting with 12 eggs “healthy”) and is perfect for serving a crowd.
The flavor combination was inspired by pizza– if you can believe it. Well, by Paula’s favorite topping combination on pizza, that is. She loves to order pizza topped with sun-dried tomatoes, feta, and basil, and in our homemade pizza incarnations of this, I have insisted on adding spinach as well (not that there were any objections).
The sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and feta cheese blend nicely into a frittata that is bursting with flavor. Yet it’s very straightforward and simple to prepare. (It’d be just as nice for dinner as for breakfast in my book.) You just chop and saute the onions and potatoes, toss everything else in too, then stick it in the oven for 30 minutes while you take care of more important things (like brewing the coffee!).
Note: Since I am currently hosted on WordPress.com and can’t use rafflecopter etc., I am only participating in the recipe-exchange aspect of #BrunchWeek, not the giveaways or the sponsorship aspect, but there are some amazing prizes that you can win just by entering on any of the other #BrunchWeek blogs! You can enter the giveaways through tomorrow– Friday, May 10th– so definitely go check them out! (All giveaway winners will be announced during a PinChatLive on Saturday, May 11th, from 2-3pm EST on the #BrunchWeek 2013 Pinterest board.)
Stay tuned for a very special Saturday edition of Spontaneous Tomato with a recipe for the final day of #BrunchWeek. And thanks so much to Christine from Cook The Story and Terri from Love and Confections for dreaming up and organizing this event!
Print this recipe. (PDF)
RECIPE:
Mediterranean Frittata
(Serves 8-10)
Ingredients:
~ 12 eggs, beaten
~ 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
~ ¼ onion, diced
~ ½ lb. of small potatoes (like Dutch yellow potatoes), unpeeled, and very thinly sliced
~ 2 cloves garlic, minced
~ 3-4 cups of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
~ 4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
~ 1 oz. sun-dried tomatoes, diced
~ several Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
~ salt and pepper, to taste
Special Equipment Needed:
~ 12″ oven-safe skillet (like my Lodge cast iron pan
How to make it:
1. Beat the 12 eggs in a large bowl and set aside. Arrange a rack in the center of the oven, and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a 12″ cast iron pan (or other non-stick oven-safe skillet), heat 1-2 Tbsp. of olive oil. Add the diced onion, and stir frequently for 5-10 min. (or longer) until completely softened and cooked.
3. Add the potato slices, and another 1 Tbsp. of olive oil if necessary. Cook, stirring occasionally and turning the potato slices, until the potato is completely cooked through (about 10 min.). Then add the garlic, and give it another stir. Add the chopped spinach, and stir until it wilts down (about 1 min.). Then remove the pan from the burner.
4. Sprinkle over half of the sun-dried tomatoes and half of the feta. Pour the eggs evenly over the other ingredients in the pan, then add the remaining sun-dried tomatoes and feta, and sprinkle over the chopped basil on top.
5. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the frittata around the edges of the pan before slicing into wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Print this recipe! (PDF)
Thursday’s #BrunchWeek Recipes:
Brunch Drink Recipes
- St-Germain and Prosecco Cocktails by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Strawberry Lemongrass Martinis by White Lights on Wednesday
Breads, Grains, Cereals, and Pancake-type Yums
- Granola, Yogurt and Walnut Cups by Cook the Story
- Banana Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal by Big Bear’s Wine
- Apple and Beecher’s Flagship Reserve Cheddar Wheat Belly Crepes by Vanilla Lemonade
- Garden Squares by {i love} my disorganized life
- Maple Sausage French Toast Bake by Real Housemoms
Potato Recipes for Brunch
- Potato and Bacon Hash by Cravings of a Lunatic
Meat, Poultry, Fish, and Legume Brunch Recipes
- Key Lime Shrimp Salad by The Domestic Mama & The Village Cook
- Black Bean Breakfast Tacos by Sweet Remedy
Fruit for Brunch
- Fruit Salad with Orange Poppy Seed Dressing by Kokocooks
Brunch Dessert Recipes
- Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Muffins by Rachel Cooks
- Rustic Apple Cake & Tea with Mom by The Vintage Cook
- Toasted Almond and Chocolate Muffins by Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
- Crumb Cake Parfait by Take A Bite Out of Boca
- Rum and Raisin French Toast by Noshing With The Nolands
- Cinnamon Raisin Banana Stuffed French Toast by Katie’s Cucina
- Breakfast Cookies by Cooking In Stilettos
- Berry Parfaits by Love and Confections
- Rhubarb Vanilla Yogurt Parfaits by Kelly Bakes
Related recipe posts:
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| Chilaquiles Verdes with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa | Eggs Benedict with Greek Yogurt Hollandaise Sauce | Parsi Tomato-Poached Eggs | Huevos Rancheros |
spontaneous tomato 
Everything lovely in one pan-perfect.
Yep, I love one-pot/one-pan meals. :)
looks delicious! you certainly packed a lot in there, yum!
Thanks! I know… :) It was already a lot even just using the pizza-inspired ingredients and without the potatoes, but I’m so glad we added the potatoes too, because they made it more like a tortilla española, which I love!
Awesome idea!
Your dish looks yummy! And I love the blood orange wedge on the side.
Thanks, Suzanne! My next #BrunchWeek recipe that will be posted on Saturday actually features Blood Oranges… I can’t get enough of them. :)
Just beautiful, Allison! Styling, photography, presentation… and above all, the recipe is marvelous!
Thank you, Fae! That is such a nice compliment. :)
So amazing looking. Thanks for the great brunch recipes!
Thanks, Samantha! And thanks for stopping by and commenting– I’ve been enjoying your brunch recipes, too! :)
I am so doing this recipe for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My husband and I love eggs and all the rest of the ingredients. Thank you for cooking up such a gorgeous meal!!!
Yay, thank you for your comment! That makes me so happy to hear. This does make a nice breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It’s a lot of eggs for two people, but that’s exactly what we did too: you can just slice it into wedges and store them in an airtight container in the fridge to enjoy it all week.
Love a frittata at anytime especially if it is loaded with goodness like yours is.
Thanks for commenting! I love frittatas that are absolutely loaded with goodness, too. :)
Love the Tracy Jordan quote! Respect!
This looks fantastic, and I’m so very glad I found your chilaquiles recipe thanks to this… It’s truly the best breakfast food there ever was.
Tina Fey is a genius. Plus I admire her ability to eat.
And thank you! Agreed, agreed, agreed: chilaquiles are The Best!
BRUNCH! That’s my favourite meal, too. :) I make sure we have brunches ever week-end, and I’ve even thought of putting together a collection of my favourite brunch recipes (refried beans, biscuits and gravy, galettes, various omelettes) for easier reference.
Your frittata-tortilla-pizza creation sounds amazing! (I love it when you try shocking combinations in the kitchen and then come up with something delicious, and this sounds like one of those times!) I’ll have to improvise on the subject as I don’t have a cast iron pan (yet) – perhaps I’ll dunk some feta into an omelette this week-end.
Oo, yes, you should collect all of your brunch recipes in one place… plus you should check out all the #BrunchWeek recipes, now that the week is almost over. (I have one more going up tomorrow actually :)
Dunking feta in an omelette is a great idea to substitute for a frittata until you someday get that cast iron pan… which you should! I love mine so. much. I was intimidated about taking care of a cast iron pan at first, but it turns out it’s even easier to deal with/clean up than other pots & pans, and I love being able to move it between the stovetop and the oven. But yes, feta/spinach and goat cheese/spinach omelettes are also awesome.
Allison, Brad McDonnell’s wife here. I am currently writing this from Indonesia – I AM CRAVING this dish right now. Just tracked it down, bookmarked it, and am planning to make it asap when we get back in a couple months (and finally have access to these ingredients!). Congrats on graduating, by the way! And on your new job! xo Anna
Hey Anna! So nice to hear from you on here, and thank you!! :) Hope all is going well for you guys in Indonesia!
I assume you at least have access to eggs there? If so, maybe you can make your own version of a frittata filled with Indonesian ingredients to tide you over until you are back in the states. (And if you discover any delicious combinations, I’d love to hear about them!)
(Lately we’ve been making this one even more simply, by skipping the garlic and sundried tomatoes, but upping the potatoes and spinach — and sometimes swapping goat cheese for the feta. And/or we’ve been making a pan of apple/berry/almond butter baked oatmeal for a week’s worth of breakfasts so that we mix things up a little and don’t get too sick of frittatas…)