I’ve always kind of had an irrational fear of making frittatas (or frittate as the Italians would say). I think it probably stems from the time I made a quiche for my breakfast day at work, and realized once I got ready to serve it that the egg was still runny. So, panicked, I ran to the kitchen and threw the entire quiches (yes, there were two) in the microwave and started re-cooking them. Suffice to say, it was a bit stressful and I was terrified I’d make all my co-workers sick with partially-cooked egg.

But I’m realizing how silly it is to be scared of frittatas, because they’re about the best, easiest, most versatile food you can make. It’s basically an open-face omelette—in fact, “frittata” comes from the Italian word for “to fry”. What’s truly excellent about it is that it’s what I call a “kitchen sink” food—meaning you have a basic base (in this case eggs, a little milk, seasoning, & cheese) and then you can add whatever you happen to have on hand to finish it off.

In this case I am still trying to use up the gobs of summer squash and scallions that came in my CSA box a week and a half ago, and I had some lovely tomatoes sitting around as well. But you could put whatever you want in here…zucchini, peppers, any other veggie, different types of cheese, fresh herbs (yes please!). The biggest thing is determining which things need sauteed first. Good rule of thumb:  if it won’t be cooked to the right consistency with about 10 minutes in an egg mixture in the oven (tomato, for instance), you should cook it up first. You can saute it, or roast the veggies to add some lovely flavor, or if you have leftover cooked veggies you can throw them in too.

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