Loaf Pan Frittata | Baked Italian Omelet | Food Wishes

Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with loaf pan frittata. That's right, I'm going to show you a great alternative method for making frittata, which I think is easier, safer, and possibly even better looking, especially if you're a fan of rectangles. And who isn't? And to get started, if we're going to use greens in our frittata, which I always think we should, we will add those to a skillet set over medium-high heat, in which we have a little bit of olive oil. And while I'm using spinach, this will work the same, whether you're doing swiss chard, or kale, or mustard greens, or dandelions, all of which would be fabulous in this. And what we'll do is move and toss that around until it just barely will, which should only take like a minute. And once that happens, we'll transfer that into a strainer, where we will let it sit and And then you know the drill. As soon as this is cool enough to handle, we'll squeeze out the excess moisture, using some paper towels or a kitchen towel, at which point it'll be ready to use. And then while we're waiting for that, we can go ahead and prep our egg, which means cracking them into a bowl, and then seasoning them up with some kosher salt, some freshly ground black pepper, and then last but never least, a few shakes of cayenne. And that's it. We'll grab a whisk and bust those eggs right in the oaks. And then we'll start whisking, and we will keep whisking until we can no longer see any of the egg white. And once that happens, we will stop. Okay, we're not trying to make a souffle here. So as soon as our eggs look like this, we are done. And we can set those aside for a few minutes, or pop them in the fridge, while we cook whatever other veggies we're going to put in. And that'll start by drizzling a lot of olive oil back into that same pan. And once again, we'll set our heat to medium high. And yes, you do want that much olive oil. And then besides spinach, I decided to include some shallots, as well as some diced up sweet red bell pepper. And we'll toss those in along with a nice big pinch of salt. And what we want to do here is cook these stirring, until they're just about tender, before we can move on to the next step. And one of the keys to a great frittata, besides using plenty of olive oil, is to make sure all your veggies are nice and tender, before we transfer the eggs in. Okay, if your veggies are crisp and undercooked, they're probably not going to cook all the way through during the baking step. And you'll be eating a frittata with crunchy vegetables in it, which is very unpleasant, and basically a crime against nature. But once we are confident these are almost tender, we will add in our cooked potatoes, which were simply some roasted potatoes I had left over, that I sliced up. And we'll mix those in with another pinch of salt. And then we'll cook this stirring for a few minutes, until those are heated through. And we're 100% certain, as I just said, all the other veggies are nice and tender. Oh, and this is the time to check the fridge, to see if you might have any other kind of vegetation to throw in there. Right, a frittata is the ultimate catch-all, so please add in whatever you like. I mean, you are after all the Frank Sinatra of your loaf pan frittata, and you get to do it your way. But anyway, back to my way. And once my veggies were tender, and my potatoes were nice and hot, I tossed in my spinach, which I started to mix in, but then I stopped, because you don't have to, since we're also going to pour in our eggs at this point, and mix everything together. So that's exactly what I did. And what our plan here is, is to cook this stirring over medium high heat, until we have something resembling a very soft, very wet scrambled egg. And by doing this before we transfer it into the loaf pan, our solid ingredients are not going to sink to the bottom, but rather be suspended very uniformly. So what we'll do once we get to this soft scrambled egg state, is turn off our heat, and we will mix in our cheese if we're using it. And I hope you are, since the cheese does add richness, flavor, and moisture. And in case you're wondering, I'm using a cheese called Tomah, which is similar to a mild cheddar, which would also work beautifully, as would any of your favorite melty cheeses. And that's it. As soon as we have that stirred in, we will transfer this into a loaf pan, which is your standard 9x5 size, that I generously greased with olive oil. And we'll make sure we're poking that down, so it's nicely settled. And once that's been accomplished, to hedge our bet, we will grab a towel and place this on top, so that before we bake it, we can give it the old tapa tapa, to really make sure we don't have any air pockets in there. And that's it. Once tapped, we can transfer that into the center of a 350 degree oven, for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until our eggs are set. And it looks like this. And yes, that looks done. But a lot of things that look done, aren't done. Which is why we'll test it with this gear. We should come out clean. And that's it. We should let this cool for at least 10 minutes, before we try to unmold it. If you want to eat it hot, that is. I actually prefer a frittata at room temp, or just barely warm. And then what I did, was take a knife, to make sure it wasn't sticking to the edges, before I flipped it out of the pan and onto a cutting board. And it was right then I realized, I'd made a huge mistake. Since the bottom had sort of stuck, and the center cracked as I took this out. And I know it looks okay, and I could have faked it, but it actually had a huge crack going all the way through the center, which was very upsetting. But anyway, I was starving, so I decided to slice it up anyway, so I can show you how beautiful this looks. And more importantly, so I could have a taste. Which was very, very good. But I couldn't enjoy it, since I was really upset I'd forgotten to line the pan with parchment paper. Okay, this is really how you want to prep your pan. Very generously oiled, with a piece of parchment paper going across like this. So I made the recipe entirely over, and I transferred it in. Except this time, I added two more eggs, since the first one was great. But I wanted to try with 12, instead of 10 eggs. Since this was a great opportunity to experiment. And then I baked that at the same time, with the same time. And I let it cool until it was just warm, before I unmolded it. And thanks to that parchment, it slid right out with no issue. And I felt a lot better. And I went ahead and cut this one up, to show you what it's really, really supposed to look like. Right, no cracks, with that little bit of extra egg. Oh and by the way, just like a classic frittata, if you don't want yours cooked all the way through, like I like mine, you can cook this less. So that your center is a little bit softer, and slightly moister. So however you normally do your regular frittata, should translate to this technique perfectly. And while I'm totally fine to eat this plain, my favorite way to enjoy this, is served open-faced, on a nice piece of toast, with a very generous application of aioli. Which enjoyed next to a nice salad, is one of the best meals of all time. But no matter how you serve this, or what kind of veggies you added, I think the loaf pan is a great way to frittata. And I really do hope you give this a try soon. So please follow the links below, for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info, as usual. And as always, enjoy!