Meatless Monday: Heirloom Tomato & Blue Cheese Frittata

A Meatless Monday post? This is not entirely in my wheelhouse. As any of my regular readers now, I'm a pretty hardcore carnivore, and the boy is even worse. We love meat in all forms, I could go on and on about the braised veal tongue we had in Montreal, but I won't, at least not today.

While on our honeymoon we ate a ton, most of it cooked by us as we were staying on an island in a lake in NH and frankly going out to eat was just too much work. We had no TV and a natural topic of conversation for us is food. As we talked about food and how we eat, we acknowledged that we don't really eat enough vegetables. During this conversation I decided that I wanted to get on board with Meatless Mondays. It is a way to get us eating more vegetables and also a way to challenge me and force me to be creative with vegetables. And the most important thing of all, it's yet another small way we can help contribute to the health of our planet.

For my very first Meatless Monday post I decided to go with a new version of something I'm very comfortable with, a frittata Is it a bit of a cop out, perhaps, but it's a baby step and I hope the more I do this, the more and more creative I'll get and the more fun I'll have with it. Besides that I truly believe a goodfrittata is something every home cook should be able to make, it's a quick and easy way to use whatever ingredients you have on hand to pull together a breakfast, lunch or dinner. This specific incarnation came about as a result of the meal we had in Montreal, with the braised veal tongue I mentioned earlier. Prior to the tongue, we had an absolutely delicious tomato salad with blue cheese and red onion and parsley and just a bit of oil and vinegar. It was very similar to the simple salads I make almost every day at home, but something about this one was just more special, more delicious, more something. The boy loved it and I decided for my carnivores inaugural meatless meal I'd go with something I knew he'd like.



Heirloom Tomato & Blue Cheese Frittata

6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 heirloom tomato - I used a variety that I was unfamiliar with, we just call these specific ones ugly tomatoes. Really any tomato will do.
2 thin slices of red onion - cut into quarters
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
2 Tbsps flat leaf parsley chopped
1 Tbsp butter
salt & pepper

1. Slice the tomato and lay on a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for 20 minutes. You can skip this step but as mast tomatoes are quite juicy your finished product will turn out much better if you pull out a bit of that extra juice.
2. Whisk together the eggs and milk. Whisk in the parsley, salt & pepper.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place a 10" oven-safe skillet on the burner and heat over medium heat. Once the pan is heated, coat it with butter, all along the bottom and sides of the pan.
4. Add the egg mixture to the heated pan. As is cooks periodically pull the cooked sides away from the pan to let some of the uncooked egg mixture redistribute and get the sides of the pan.
5. After a few minutes layer in the red onion and tomato. Let it cook for a few more minutes, until the egg mixture is cooked 3/4 of the way. Sprinkle the blue cheese crumbles on top and place in the oven.
6. Let cook for 5-10 mins until the eggs are cooked all the way through and maybe even start to brown a bit. Remove pan from oven and carefully transfer frittata to a cutting board. Cover with a foil tent and let rest for 5 minutes.
7. Once the frittata has rested, cut into wedges, like a pizza and serve.

The boy was quite happy with this meal. I served it with a simple salad of baby greens and tomato, dressed with walnut oil and blackberry balsamic vinegar and some pan-fried sliced potatoes. It's no secret that breakfast for dinner is one of my favorites and this was no exception. I love the way blue cheese works with just about anything, but the combination of it with red onion and tomato all held together with light and fluffy egg. It was really nice and a perfectly satisfying meal at the end of a hot summer day, especially when paired with a cool glass of Tawse Sketches of Niagara Rose.

Enjoy!