Frittata

If you decide to bake a frittata/quichetata with crust it will take a little bit longer, as there are more steps involved. Throughout this past semester of grad school, I made crustless frittata/quichetatas every week in a 12″ cast iron skillet because it was quick and easy

Frittata/Quichetata with Crust

For a quiche with crust, you will be using a deep dish pie pan. The recipe for the pie crust is below. You will need to blind bake the crust before adding the egg filling. Blind baking bakes the crust first because once you add any type of custard filling, the crust won’t be able to bake further. For the crust recipe, you will be using 8 eggs.

Crustless Frittata/Quichetata

For the crustless quichetata, you will need a 12″ cast iron (or any oven safe) skillet. This recipe uses 12 eggs.

Mix Ins

There are endless combinations of mix ins you can use. You’re pretty much just limited by the size of your pan. For this quichetata I use spinach, bell peppers, and onions. I love keeping around frozen spinach to use for this. Some other mix ins:

Vegetables:

• spinach
• bell peppers
• onions
• mushrooms

Meats:

• bacon
• ham
• sausage
• pancetta
• steak

Single Deep Dish Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (325 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cold and cut into tablespoon sized pieces
• 1/4 cup shortening, cold and cut into tablespoon sized pieces
• 1/2 cup ice cold water

Instructions

• Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a medium sized bowl.
• I like to stick this bowl, along with my pastry cutter in the freezer while I’m cutting up the butter and shortening.
• Using a pastry cutter* or fork, cut the butter and shortening into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. The largest chunk of butter should be the size of a small pea.
• Drizzle ice water one tablespoon at a time in the the mixture, using a fork to gently moisten the flour until it starts to clump*.
• Gently form the dough into a disc about 1 1/2 inches tall. Double wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for two hours.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 15″ circle. You may lightly flour over and under the dough as you go.
• Fold the dough in half, the in half one more so the dough is now folded into quarters. Gently place in pie pan and unfold, easing the dough inwards as you press it against the insides of the pie pan. Trim any excess dough that’s beyond 1/2 an inch from the edge of the pie pan. Save it in case you need to patch up any thing spots.
• Fold the 1/2 of dough overhang under so it creates a thick edge. Using your thumb and index finger, make scalloped edges in the dough.
• If blind baking, preheat oven to 400°F. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the crust and fill with pie weights, rice, or beans. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and weights and bake for another 5 minutes.

NotesPastry Cutter: This is commonly used to cut butter into flour. You can also use a food processor instead. (I don’t recommend putting the food processor in the freezer, it’s not necessary).

Ice Water: The amount of ice water needed varies greatly depending on the ambient temperature and relative humidity. To see if you’ve added enough water, grab a clump of dough and gently form a fist to squeeze it. If it stays together once you open your hand, it’s ready. If it breaks apart, drizzle another tablespoon of water.