Simple Cooking – Potato and Onion Frittata

By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 17, 2008 6:45PM

Coming home from a long day at work, the last thing we want to do is go back out and shop for the ingredients to make dinner. Often, meal planning can help avert situations like this, but we regularly find ourselves in our kitchen staring at a nearly-empty refrigerator and trying to come up with a cheap, substantial meal.

This easy frittata is a perfect solution. Made of pantry ingredients (onions and potatoes), as well as a few eggs (which we usually have lying around in the back of the fridge), this meal is substantial enough to feed at least two, and it reheats well for the next day. If you have time to shop, pair it with a lightly dressed green salad.

Potato and Onion Frittata

6 eggs
1 large potato, peeled
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic (optional)
1 tbsp rosemary (optional)
salt and black pepper

Thinly slice the onion and potato. If you have a mandolin slicer, use it; otherwise try to cut them to the width of a potato chip. Chop the garlic roughly. Sauté the onion in some butter or olive oil over medium heat – don’t brown it, just cook until it starts to get translucent. After about 5 minutes, add the rosemary and potato slices and cook, covered, until the potatoes are cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Check the pan regularly while the potatoes cook. You’ll have to stir it to keep the onions from burning, and you need to be sure the potatoes don’t overcook – they should still keep their shape and have enough bite to provide texture.

Preheat your broiler. While the potatoes and onions are cooking, crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat until combined. Once the potatoes are cooked, pour the eggs into the pan. Try to make sure the eggs are evenly distributed, but don’t worry too much about it. Turn down the heat to low and cook until the eggs have set around the edges of the pan, about 10 minutes. Once the eggs have set, put the whole pan under the broiler. Let it roast until the eggs in the center of the pan have set, and the whole thing is just barely getting brown. Take it out of the oven, let it cool and cut into wedges.

Be sure to use an oven-safe pan. We use cast iron for this, because it’s easy to take it from the range-top to the oven. Place your oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source in your broiler; you want to make sure it gets plenty of direct heat.