Peggy Lampman's Sunday dinnerFeed: Asian eggplant and parmesan fritatta

A perfect vegetable needs a worthy recipe and a fritatta is a recipe to fall in love with. It is deliciously practical, and dislikes the confines of specific ingredients, preferring instead to use leftovers and pantry staples. I have 5 eggs in the fridge, Parmigianno Reggiano, angel hair pasta, that lovely dangling Asian eggplant and some tomatoes and basil. Tonight's dinnerFeed is decided.

The only word of caution I will offer is to make sure your fritatta is fairly firm throughout when you slide it out of the pan, onto a plate. You will then invert the fritatta onto a baking sheet. If the fritatta is loose, it may break. If that happens, piece it back together and sprinkle cheese over the cracks before popping into the oven. The melted cheese will glue it back together and no one will be the wiser!

If I had more eggs, I could have made a thicker frittata. Pine nuts would have been wonderful but I finished up the bag making pesto last week. Orzo or spaghetti would have been a fine pasta and most quality cheese would be a suitable replacement for the Parmesan. Any vegetable you are in love with would be wonderful as a substitute for the eggplant.

Yield: 6 wedges Cost: $8.50 Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon garlic 1 Asian eggplant, washed then sliced into 1/4” thick medallions ( 2 heaping cups) 6 ounces Angel hair pasta 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
 5 large Eggs, beaten
 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 cup plus 1/4 cup grated Parmigianno Reggiano cheese
 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚. 2. In a 10 -inch, non-stick skillet, heat olive oil to medium heat. Sauté garlic one minute then add eggplant and sauté until just tender, 1-2 minutes. Remove eggplant from skillet and reserve. (Do not clean pan as it will be reused.) 3. Cook angel hair in salted water according to package instructions. Drain then cut into 2-inch pieces. (You should have about 2 cups.) Combine angel hair with beaten eggs and lightly season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir in 1 cup Parmesan, 1 1/2 cups of eggplant and 1/2 cup sliced tomatoes, reserving remaining Parmesan, eggplant, tomato for garnishing. 4. Over medium heat, melt butter in sauté pan, pour in egg mixture and cook, lifting up cooked egg around edge occasionally to let raw egg flow underneath. Cook over medium heat 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until underside is golden, and fritatta is firm, about 6-8 additional minutes. Slide a rubber spatula around the edges and under the fritatta to loosen. Carefully slide onto a plate. 5. Invert foil-lined baking sheet over plate and carefully flip frittata onto baking sheet. Garnish fritatta with remaining eggplant, tomatoes and Parmesan. Bake until cheese is just melted, about 6 minutes. Garnish with chopped basil, cut into 6 wedges and serve.