Linguine Frittata

Lots of leftovers. And then leftovers from leftovers. We've pretty much eaten everything, having to throw away very little after the holidays. One of the leftovers of leftovers was a bag of linguine; I'd put the leftover Christmas eve mussels over pasta (wonderful!) and had linguine leftover. Where pasta isn't my #1 favorite food, I wanted to try something different with it and we've never had a linguine frittata.

The recipe is from the Everyday Food show website. The original recipe was for one; I tweaked some of the ingredients as well as increased ingredients so that it could feed four. You can use any long strand pasta, like spaghetti or fettucine, as well.

Linguine frittata

5 large eggs

5 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/8 tsp ground pepper

3 cups cooked linguine, roughly chopped if desired

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 thawed and drained chopped frozen spinach

1 tsp oil

1. Heat broiler to high. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Mix in linguine, cheese, and spinach.

2. In a large broiler-proof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-low. Pour in spaghetti mixture; cook until top is almost set, 5-7 minutes. Transfer to broiler, placing pan 4 inches from heat source; cook until set about 1 minute.

The Verdict: More fun than just another pasta and sauce meal. Tasty, but I'm not pining for more leftover pasta to make it again.

I liked that the top was slightly crunchy (and yeah, OK, if you look at my picture it was maybe a little too crunchy) and that the pasta within the frittata was still a bit al dente. The textures were great. The cheese and spinach were good but can be substituted with whatever you desire: the original recipe called for shredded Swiss and peas.

Definitely fun, though. I think kids would really enjoy this dish.

Huevos Rancheros

When I came across this recipe, which first appeared in Good Housekeeping, I tagged it as a potential family meal. I've had some great huevos rancheros (ranch eggs) and thought this version looked easy and healthy.

Huevos Rancheros

4 (6-inch) corn tortillas

nonstick cooking spray

1 jar (16-oz) mild fat-free salsa

1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup frozen corn kernels

3 green onions, sliced

1 tsp ground cumin

4 large eggs

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, thinly sliced

1/2 avocado, sliced into thin wedges

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 15 1/2- by 10 1/2-inch jelly roll pan, invert four 6-ounce custard cups. With kitchen shears, make four evenly spaced 1-inch cuts, from edge toward center, around each tortilla. Lightly spray both sides of tortillas with cooking spray and drape each over a custard cup. Bake tortilla cups 8 minutes or until golden and crisp.

2. Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet, combine salsa, beans, corn, green onions, and ground cumin; heat to boiling over medium heat. Cover and cook 3 minutes to blend flavors.

3. With large spoon, make 4 indentations for the eggs in salsa mixture, spacing them evenly around skillet. One at a time, break eggs into a cup, then slip the egg into an indentation in salsa mixture. Cover and simmer 8 to 10 minutes or until eggs are set or cooked to desired doneness.

4. To serve, invert each tortilla cup onto a plate. Spoon an egg with some salsa mixture into each tortilla cup. Spoon any remaining salsa mixture around and on eggs in cups. Sprinkle with cilantro; serve with avocado slices.

The Verdict: Good, easy, but not the recipe I was hoping for.

My husband liked it and my son ate it as well. I ate it and liked it, too, but just felt that something was missing. If you Google "huevos rancheros" about a trillion recipes pop up. Many call for something a little more than just salsa, beans and corn--whether it be a homemade salsa simmered in chicken stock, covered in green chile sauce, or embellished with smoky chiles in adobo. This lacked pop.

I did like that it was open this, dump that, toss in eggs and walk away. It's always smart to have some easy recipes in your arsenal.

Two thoughts on the recipe: First, when it asks to make indentations with your spoon, don't be too frustrated that you can't. Unless your salsa was super-chunky, you've got a lot of wet in your skillet. You are basically pushing the solid ingredients aside under a layer of tomato sauce. That's perfect. You're just trying to make sure the eggs don't melt into one four-yolked monster. Secondly, corn tortillas are a lot less pliable than a flour-based tortilla. The cuts and the cooking spray will help to "drape" the tortillas over the custard cups, but don't get it in your head that you're going to make corn cups. They will flop enough to hold your salsa and eggs; leave it at that.

So I'm not sure. I think I'll continue to find a huevos rancheros recipe that really wows me over.

Lebanese Eggs with Sumac

From Washington, DC to Ethiopia to Lebanon in 10 minutes. Ready?


On Friday afternoon, I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations with Amir. Bourdain is probably not the most appropriate viewing for a 2-year-old, but since this isn't a parenting blog, we won't go there. Anyhow, he was visiting and eating his way around Washington, DC. He and his companion are at one point dining in an Ethiopian restaurant, eating raw grass-fed beef with injera, the spongy bread served with Ethiopian meals. The injera (but definitely not the raw meat) make me suddenly hungry for doro wat, a really fantastic stew. So I hunt down my The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors cookbook.


You may remember Jeff Smith, or the Frugal Gourmet, as the funny-voiced PBS cook who fell from grace in the early '90's and died a few years later. Whether the allegations brought against him were true or not, I loved watching him cook and have quite a few of his recipes I go back to time and again. Unfortunately, his recipe for doro wat was too complex for my taste, so I began flipping through the book, landing on a recipe for eggs fried in oil with sumac.


See the world tour?


Anyway, I love sumac and have sumac but hardly ever use sumac. No, it's not made from poison sumac, the stuff you find in your backyard that makes you itch like poison ivy. They are related, but the spice comes from the berry of a different plant. It's a beautiful dark red color and the taste is hard to describe. Smith calls it "tart and tangy," good adjectives. But there aren't too many recipes that call for it. So with extra eggs around for holiday baking, I thought this easy recipe was just the ticket for a lazy Sunday dinner.

Lebanese Eggs with Sumac

4 tbsp olive oil
4-6 eggs, depending on how many you're serving
1 tbsp sumac
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet and add the oil. Break the eggs into the oil, being careful not to break the yolks. Sprinkle the sumac and salt and pepper on top. Cover and slowly cook until done to taste. Serve with fresh pita bread.

The Verdict: Nothing to write home about, but definitely easy and something new to do with my jar of sumac.

There's not much else to say about this recipe. I made five eggs; two for each adult and one for the kiddo. I wanted my yolk runny, my husband's slightly runny, and my son's hard. Kind of impossible when five eggs have cooked together in a pan. Ironically, my son's egg was the runniest of all.

Pita bread is not only delicious, but the authentic choice. If you have no pita bread on hand, you can obviously serve with whatever bread, toasted or not, that your family enjoys.

I forgot to take pictures again last night but I think that's OK; my guess is you've all seen a fried egg before! Oh and last night was meatless Sunday as we'll be eating meat for the rest of the week. We were lucky enough to have lunch with my husband's friends yesterday and they are both vegetarians from Southern India. The wife made homemade dosas which were amazing. We'll have to see if that recipe will eventually make it to the roster...