Roasted Asparagus and Bacon Fritatta

Ah Frittata. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch. As my friend William Shakespeare put it, “the world is your oyster!” In other words, this can be for any meal, any occasion, and you can use whatever vegetables and cheese you have on hand. This is naturally gluten free and can be made dairy free very easily by subbing a plant based milk instead of the half and half and using either vegan cheese or leaving out the cheese altogether. This is a true family pleaser served alongside some thick slices of buttered toast.

The first frittata I ever made was Ina Garten’s roasted vegetable frittata and I have been making them almost weekly ever since. I use her egg and half and half ratios for all of my frittata recipes except I cut the amounts in half (she uses 12 eggs, I only use 6). This meal is cheap, easy, and always ends up looking so homey and comforting served in a cast iron pan. It’s also perfect for using up leftover veggies! I wholeheartedly recommend using a cast iron skillet for this, but if you’re brave you could try using a stainless pan or any other oven safe skillet of similar size. Just make sure if your skillet is bigger than a standard cast iron (10 or 12 inches) that you cut down the oven time and keep an eye on it. When it looks puffy and slightly jiggly in the middle, it’s ready. If you let it go too long it will still be edible, but perhaps rubbery. I find the two minute stovetop time plus 15 minutes in the oven works just right for this particular frittata recipe.

Roasted Asparagus and Bacon Frittata

• 1 bunch of asparagus roasted (or you can saute in the pan for a few minutes if it’s not already been roasted)
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup of half and half (whole milk works too)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 small onion diced
• 4 slices of bacon cooked
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you’d like)

Directions

To roast the asparagus: preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut off the very woody ends of the asparagus (about one inch from the bottom of the stalk -or- line up tops, snap one end off and cut off the rest where it snapped). Place asparagus on a sheet pan and drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 12-15 minutes. More time if your stalks are thick, less if they are thinnys 🙂 After the asparagus has cooked and cooled a little, cut it into 1 inch long pieces.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Crack the 6 eggs into a bowl. Whisk until the mixture is all one uniform color with no globs of egg white left and then whisk in your half and half or milk. Whisk in 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.

Cook the bacon. I like to do this by chopping the bacon into small pieces and cooking it in the cast iron skillet over medium high heat until crisp, but you could leave the strips whole if that is easiest for you. Remove the bacon from the skillet and place on paper towel to drain a little of the grease off while you complete the rest of the steps.

Pour off all but 1 tbsp of the bacon grease from the pan (save for making popcorn later?). Over medium heat, add onion to the pan Cook onion for one or two minutes and add the roasted asparagus to the pan.

Move vegetables around in the pan so that you have an even layer and then add egg mixture to the pan. Do not stir it. I repeat. Do. Not. Stir. It.

Haha. But for real. Don’t touch it.

Sprinkle over your reserved bacon and the cheese in an even layer then let it cook for 2 minutes over medium low heat undisturbed. 

After two minutes, carefully place in the oven to continue to cook for 15 minutes. It will puff up and have a slight jiggle in the middle when it is done.

Sprinkle over some chopped flat leaf parsley (completely optional but pretty) and serve with some crusty bread and butter or toast of your choice.

Notes:

*If you want to save yourself a step and start with raw asparagus, cut it into one inch long pieces and you will saute it in the pan for 3-4 minutes before continuing with adding the onion to saute. Continue the recipe as normal from there.