Photo illustration by Lille Allen; see below for full credits
Cooked low and slow in the oven, it’s designed to satisfy nocturnal breakfast cravings
To me, frittatas fall into two classes. The first is a breakfast frittata, which I liken to a classic diner omelet — unapologetically hard-cooked. It’s stuffed with miscellany from the fridge, made over fairly high heat on the stove, and finished in the broiler. It’s the kind of thing you eat before you hustle off to work.
The second is a breakfast-for-dinner frittata, with more considered ingredients that take a bit of time to prepare. It’s cooked relatively low and slow in the oven, a method I learned from Carla Lalli Music’s first cookbook, Where Cooking Begins. Lalli Music adopted it from Franny’s, a beloved, now-closed Brooklyn restaurant. The oven method results in an evenly lucious, “dense and creamy” (her words) frittata — one I turn to whenever a nocturnal craving for breakfast food strikes.
To make your own, start by cleaning and slicing 4 ounces of mushrooms. I like shiitakes if I’m buying from the grocery store, but this is also a prime opportunity to pick out more unusual varieties from the farmers market. Next, trim the green part off of 1 small leek and discard. Slice the white part of the leek lengthwise (it’s okay to leave a bit of light green) and rinse each half. Dirt hides in leeks, so fan the layers with your fingers as the water washes over them, keeping the halves as intact as possible. Once they’re clean, pat them dry as best you can. Now slice each one crosswise into chunks. I make the cuts about a half-inch wide because anything smaller feels unsubstantial.
I’ll pause here to say that mushrooms and leeks are a classic combination, but as with any frittata, feel free to use whatever vegetables you like.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into an 8-inch nonstick skillet and set it over medium heat. (You can eyeball this, too — just make sure there’s a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan.) Add the mushrooms, give them a stir so they get coated in the oil, and spread them out. You should stir them a few subsequent times so that both sides have a chance to make contact with the surface of the pan, but for the most part, leave them alone. Mushrooms leach out their moisture, which needs to evaporate, before they can brown and crisp. The more you let them do their thing without disturbing them, the faster this process will go. You can also add more olive oil as needed; mushrooms absorb a lot. You don’t want to be crazy heavy-handed, but if the skillet starts to look dry at any point, drizzle a little more.
While the mushrooms are cooking, crack 3 eggs into a small bowl. (I’m being generous here, since this is dinner, but I often use 2 eggs, which is totally fine and equally delicious. It will just result in a thinner frittata.) Season with kosher salt. Despite what some claim, this will not dry out your eggs. Sohla El-Wally has a helpful explainer on how much salt to use in this NYT Cooking video, but the basic idea is a small pinch scattered across the surface of each egg. Whisk until smooth. Break up 1 ounce of goat cheese, and gently mix it into the eggs. Set them aside.
Return to the mushrooms. They take about eight minutes total — but trust your eyes more than my word. As they finish cooking, season them with kosher salt. (Salting at the beginning draws out too much moisture at once, prolonging the time it takes for the mushrooms to crisp.) Once they’re done, place them into a small bowl and set aside.
Return the skillet to the stove, turn down the heat a smidge, drizzle in a little bit more olive oil if needed, and add the leek. Season with salt. Unlike with the mushrooms, you should stir every few minutes; the goal is for the leek to get soft and take on just a bit of color. This should also take about eight minutes. When it’s done, kill the heat, but leave the leek in the pan.
Add the mushrooms back to the skillet, stir them with the leek, and spread everything back out. Pour in the egg mixture. Finally, sprinkle ½ ounce of grated Parm over the top, along with a few turns of freshly cracked black pepper.
Place the skillet into the oven for 13 to 15 minutes until the eggs are cooked through. Take it out and let it sit while you make a piece of toast to eat alongside. Slide the frittata onto a cutting board, slice, and thank god it’s not 9 a.m. and you don’t have a meeting to get to.
Emma Wartzman is the kitchen and dining writer at New York Magazine’s the Strategist.
Additional photo illustration credits: plate photo by Emma Wartzman
