Category: zucchini

Honestly, I was on a roll that night. I made a whole rabbit stew, chicken and leek soup, and this frittata. The rabbit stew was the only thing I made from a recipe. The other two–yep, that’s right! I made them up. Why? What sparked that surge of creativity? And was I seriously successful?

Well, to the latter, “yes!” The soup was way better than I thought it would be, and the frittata… well, I really believe it’s hard to mess up frittata. It’s like a pizza–you take leftover whatever, toss them together, add a few standard ingredients and poof! You have a yummy dish. 

To the former questions: I’ve never used leeks before, and in order to make the rabbit stew, I had to buy some. After setting up the stew to cook low and slow, I googled “what to do with leeks?” I can’t tell you how many potato-and-leek soups I passed over, looking for something Paleo and delicious. Fortunately, someone somewhere on the webs said that leeks can be used in place of onion. “Well that’s handy!” I thought to myself. I didn’t have any onion left in the house. 

I was staring at the other food in the fridge, and saw my eggs. Wouldn’t it be nice if I made something interesting for breakfast this week? Frittata was the first thing that came to mind. I knew it would make breakfast for the week easier (cooking at one time for five meals instead of cooking five separate meals, one per morning). 

Plus, I was excited to switch things up a bit. (As an aside: we should probably watch how much egg we eat. I’ve heard if you over-do it with any food item, you can develop allergies to it. But eggs are so easy, yummy, and good for us, it’s not been easy to take “breaks” from them. We have for a week here or there, but it’s not something we feel we could sustain long term. We love our eggs too much, lol.) Anyways, we had plenty of zucchini and small tomatoes. So, I decided I’d make a frittata with the those and the leeks. Oh, and of course bacon. How could I not include bacon?! 😉

Alright, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 10 eggs, whisked in a large bowl
• 6 slices of bacon, chopped
• 1 leek, sliced and well rinsed (white and light green parts only)
• 1 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup tomato, sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a caste iron skillet or dutch-oven-like pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until just before it gets crispy (about 3 – 5 minutes). Be sure to flip the pieces around so both sides get cooked.
3. Add the zucchini and leeks to the pan.
4. Cook the bacon, zucchini and leeks together until the leeks are soft, stirring occasionally (about 3 – 5 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, sprinkle a little salt and pepper to taste into the bowl of whisked eggs
6. Pour the egg over everything in the pan.
7. Allow it to sit and cook for at least 2 minutes.
8. Next, carefully place the tomatoes on top. They will sink into the egg, but since will have cooked a little, they should stay near the top.
9. Cover the pan and place it in the over.
10. Bake for 20 minutes.
11. Check the frittata–if the center is still very soggy/uncooked, give it another 5 minutes.
12. Uncover the frittata and cook for 5 more minutes to brown the top slightly.
13. Allow it to cool, flip it out onto a plate and serve!

It looks like a pizza, doesn’t it?

This frittata was a great alternative to our usual scrambled eggs and bacon. I cut it just like a pizza into eight slices and we each took a slice for breakfast Monday morning through Thursday last week. The leek really did act like onion–but it wasn’t sharp or bitter. The frittata had a nice, savory onion flavor complimented by the salty bacon and sweet tomato. I’ll admit, the zucchini flavor wasn’t much to speak of, but it did add good texture. 🙂 Breakfast success!