Southwest Baked Frittata

Today during class, I turned to my friend, rattled off the random ingredients in my fridge, and asked her to tell me what I should make for dinner. To her credit, she immediately answered with great ideas! (I would’ve been like, “Uhhh… good luck with your dilemma there bud…”) So thanks Victoria for the idea for tonight’s dinner! Where would we be without our friends?

I baked this frittata (still looking into whether or not baking it makes it not a frittata, but in the meantime, we’ll go with it…) mostly because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to successfully make it and flip it on the stove. I’m not that graceful and flipping a frittata without breaking it seems out of my league… This version is super easy and tastes great! But while with a quick google, I can find a ton of recipes for “baked frittata,” the word frittata literally comes from the Italian for “fried.” Oven baked ≠ fried. That’s about as far as I cared to look into it. Someone correct my terminology!

Southwest Baked Frittata

Ingredients: 

• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 links of chicken sausage*
• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 ears of corn
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp Chipotle powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 5 turns of fresh ground black pepper
• Dash of crushed red pepper flakes
• 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions: 

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat the oil in a medium pan on your stove.
3. Once heated, add the garlic and cook for just 2-3 minutes.
4. Slice the sausage length-wise, then slice into half-moons. Add this to the pan with the garlic. Cook for ~10 minutes, until beginning to brown.
5. Add diced red bell pepper and the corn (sliced off the ears). Add a splash of water and cover the pan. Allow the vegetables to steam for just another 5 minutes or so.
6.  Meanwhile, whisk together your eggs and the milk in a large bowl. Whisk for several minutes.
7. Then add in the hot sauce and spices. Give another good whisk to combine.
8. Drain off any excess water or oil from the pan on the stove. Then add the contents to the bowl with the eggs. Stir all the ingredients together.
9. Spray a 9×9 pie pan with cooking spray. Pour the contents of the bowl into the pan.
10. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes. (Check for doneness by inserting a knife towards the middle of the dish – check for any runny egg.)
11. Sprinkle cheese on top and return to the oven for just a minute or two until the cheese melts.

*We love Trader Joe’s chicken sausage. There are a ton of varieties that would be great in this dish; I used the garlic chicken sausage this time.

Serves 6.