The Easiest Oven-Baked Frittata You'll Ever Make

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I don't know about you, but if I can work out an easier way to do something, I'm all over it.  This frittata recipe falls right into that category - easy, wholesome and kid friendly.  And best of all, it doesn't require a two-step cooking process.  Everything is thrown into a large lasagna baking dish and forgotten.  You can use any combination of vegetables and meat you like - we like semi dried tomatoes, spring onions and ham, with some capsicum (peppers) to give it a Mexican kick.  Here's the original recipe (but really, it's just a guide.  Mix it up!)

Oven Baked Frittata

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes

1 red onion, chopped

70g (2 ½ oz) pancetta, chopped (or bacon / ham)

100g (3 ½ oz) baby spinach

200g (7 oz) red grape tomatoes, halved

1 red capsicum (pepper), chopped

8 eggs

½ cup thickened cream

½ cup parmesan cheese, shredded

¼ cup tasty cheese, shredded

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC (395ºF).  Lightly grease a 5cm (2 in) deep, 26cm (10 in) x 16.5cm (6 ½ in) ovenproof dish.
   
   
2. Pierce each potato a few times and microwave on high until tender (alternatively, you could boil them, but slice first otherwise they'll take forever).  No need to peel first, just scrub.  Allow to cool, then thinly slice.  Set aside.
   
   
3. Prepare all of your vegetables, any kind you like.  If you have small kids, you might find a very fine dice of everything goes down better than big chunks of, say, broccoli or spinach leaves.
   
   
4. Place the slices of potato along the bottom of the prepared dish.  Don't get fancy - overlaps and gaps are fine! (If you have leftover slices you could include them in another layer too).
   
   
5. Sprinkle with your choice of meat or vegetables (instead of the suggested pancetta, we usually use ham or bacon).  You can totally eyeball this (for us, it changes every time we make it, according to what we have in the fridge.  Load up the vegies or not.  Half a capsicum (pepper) one time and a full capsicum the next.  Pass on the meat.  Totally your choice!  About the only thing that stays consistent for us each time are the semi dried tomatoes and the potatoes.  I don't even bother to measure anything).
   
   
6. Beat the eggs and cream together in a separate bowl and pour over everything in the pan.  Don't stress if it doesn't look like enough egg mixture - quite often we have to crack an extra couple of eggs on the fly as the amount of vegies can change so much from one time to the next.  You want the egg mixture to come to just level with the vegie/meat mix.
   
   
7. Sprinkle with cheeses (I rarely bother with both types - I just use the tasty) and bake until the egg mixture is set (dig at it a little - the egg should be the consistency of firm scrambled eggs, or quiche) and the cheese is browned on top (if the cheese is getting too dark, foil that baby up).
   
   
8. Serve with a great big healthy green salad.

Notes:
As you can see, we have many amendments to the original recipe!  This really is 'slap it all together' cooking and as such, cooking times can vary greatly.  It can take as much as 1 hr, 20 mins to set in the oven, so get it started early.  But the best thing about this meal is that it is awesome both hot and cold (slight greying of the potatoes is normal).  The only superpower it doesn't have is freezability.  The egg just doesn't hold up well enough.  But it will keep in the fridge for a good 2-3 days, perfect for lunches and leftovers.  Enjoy :)

Check out Life As Mom for more nommy egg dishes!