Frittatine alle Verdue

With Eggs

In cooking, eggs often serve as a binder. For a locavore, eggs often serve as a binder too, bringing together the disparate ingredients one has obtained over the weeks. For a while I've been hankering to make frattanine alle erbe, tiny egg pancakes filled with greens and herbs. While I have greens in the Bungalow, I decided to make what I'm calling frittatine alle verdue, with vegetables instead as I mostly wanted to use some hanging around scallions and my large supply of garlic scapes. These made for a nice Sunday brunch, with a green salad on the side and challah from Friday night.

The mis en place is below, at least my attempt as such. As I noted the other day, I've been channeling my inner Italian Grandmother. I'm also trying to channel my inner Escofier these days as well. Notice the assortment of egg sizes from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Growers. Also, notice how I trimmed off some scraggy ends and long growing roots from my scallions.






I rough cut basil, scallions and scapes and sauteed them for about five minutes in olive oil over medium heat. Until soft but not ashen.

To make the frittatine, you crack one egg into a bowl. Mix with a fork. Season with a bit of salt, a shake of nutmeg cannot hurt if you got.

Lightly oil a small, heavy bottom pan, preferably cast iron, add a dollop of the verdue, then pour in the egg.



It took me several attempts to master or at least determine the right technique here. The idea is to make something akin to a crepe not an omelet. My problem was my pan was exactly the right size for the frittatine, but exactly the right size made flipping difficult. It was hard to get a spatula in under the eggs.



My tendency at first was to revert to French habits [ed. you?]. I used a fork to pull back the cooked eggs from the edge, letting some of the uncooked eggs fill-in. I wanted to fold the egg to cook the wet inside. Instead what I found was just be patient. Let the bottom cook long enough, over medium heat, to really firm up the whole thing. Then it was possible to slip the spatula in and give a good flip. Under this method, the second side needs only about 10 seconds.



I kept the frittatine in a 175 degree oven until I finished the dozen.


The finished product served with some grated (local) Parmesan style cheese and some salsa verde I've had around (freshening up a bit the other night with some new herbs).