It had been ages since I made a frittata. With friends coming for brunch a few weeks ago, I was bored with the idea of making my usual torta. Leafing through Ina Garten’s “How Easy is That?” cookbook, I decided to try her “Roasted Vegetable Frittata”. As with most of Ina’s recipes, it came together as promised and was a hit at brunch.
These days, however, I am determined to drop some weight and am religiously counting calories. Because I love to cook, it seems a double punishment to both diet and stay out of the kitchen. So I decided to rework the recipe as a roasted pepper frittata, a healthier version with fewer calories, fat and salt.
Subbing low-fat milk for the half-and-half was an obvious move. I hadn’t been crazy about either the garlic or zucchini in Ina’s recipe, so out they went. I used Fontina in place of the Gruyére, just because that’s what I found in the fridge. The original size of the chopped vegetables had seemed too large, so I chopped them smaller, into 3/4-inch sized pieces. Cutting back on the oil and switching out the butter for a bit of the oil saved some more calories, and my streamlined recipe was ready to go – and turned out to be a home run at supper last night.
TIP: If you are fortunate enough to have a Trader Joe’s in your neighborhood, they sell a package of three peppers, red, orange and yellow.
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¾-inch pieces
- 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¾-inch pieces
- 1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¾-inch pieces
- 1 small red onion, peeled and cut into ¾-inch pieces
- ¼ cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon reserved
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 12 large eggs
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup grated Fontina cheese
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Place the peppers and onion on a sheet pan. Drizzle with the olive oil, saving 1 tablespoon for later. Toss with salt and pepper.
- Bake for 25 minutes, tossing vegetables once after 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven and lower oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Using a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and Parmesan.
- In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the roasted vegetables to the skillet. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables and cook for 2 minutes without stirring.
- Place the skillet in the oven and cook for 25 minutes, until the center of the frittata has set and top is golden brown.
- Sprinkle with Fontina cheese and bake another 3 minutes.
- Cut into wedges and serve.
