The Weekend Sexipe: Steff's Chorizo & Chevre Frittata

I love making great breakfasts for lovers, but really relish making them for myself. Life’s too short to only use your A-game for others, so this has become something I’ve really come to love making for lil’ ol’ deserving me.
Because I’ve sometimes lived a sheltered life, breakfast-wise, I somehow never had my first frittata until this year. Now I’m in love. I had gone out of my way to try a brekkie at the much-vaunted (but far overpriced) Avenue Grille, and figured $9 for eggs and bacon was a fucking joke, so I might as well go big-ticket and order the special they had. Which was a $12 version of this frittata, but I pack mine with far more ingredients, and love the rich and intense flavours from upping the caramelized onions and chorizo.
Anyone I’ve served my version of the Avenue’s Chorizo & Chevre Frittata to always has seconds.
This’ll keep overnight and warms up very nicely, if you want to make it for your single self, or
shares nicely for two healthy appetites. I’ll usually do it in a larger 13″ saute pan for two people and increase all the veggies by half and the eggs to five, so I can have leftovers for me the next day, ‘cos this thing is a bit of a labour of love to have as a one-off meal. ๐Ÿ™‚
Also, I make extra onions and peppers and store them for use either in other meals, or save them for the next weekend and cut the prep time in half. I’ll be including all my little tricks below.

Steff’s Take: Chorizo & Chevre Frittata
with Caramelized Onions & Peppers

2 roma tomatoes chopped in chunks, or 1/4 to 1/2 cup of halved grape tomatoes, juice and seeds removed
1 medium sweet, Spanish, or Vidalia onion, sliced thin
1 each of small red AND yellow pepper, sliced thin
5″ piece of chorizo sausage, chopped (I do mine as half-moons about 1/4 inch thick)
2 ounces chevre or soft, ripened goats cheese (feta would work nicely too) crumbled in 1/2″ chunks
3 eggs, beaten
salt & pepper
First, chop the tomatoes and get rid of all the juice. Put a couple pieces of paper towel over a cooling rack and then lay the tomatoes out over it, and salt them generously. Let them sit like that as you make the rest of the meal. This will drain all the juice out of them and intensify the flavour, so when you’re adding them to the eggs right before tossing them the dish in the oven, they won’t add liquid and kill the texture.
In a 9″ or so frying pan that’s oven safe to 400F, slowly saute and caramelize the onions in a little butter and olive oil over low heat. Speed up the process a little by adding salt and a teaspoon of sugar, if you like.
Once the onions are nearly cooked, add the peppers and cook for another five minutes or so. To save this step you could add some bottled roasted peppers instead. Reserve these veggies as you continue.
When the onions are ready, you’re getting there. Now preheat the oven to 400F.
In the same frying pan, now you want to saute your chorizo until it’s cooked up. Keep the oil from the sausage — that’s flavour you can’t fake, baby. Do NOT clean the pan out. It’s about flavour! Return the onions and peppers to the pan, add the tomatoes, ensure all the ingredients are rather evenly distributed, crack a lot of black pepper over it and kosher or sea salt, cook for a moment, but turn the heat off the stove pretty quick. Off the heat, pour your eggs over the veggies and gently move the ingredients aside here and there (without fucking up your carefully-scattered-pattern) so the eggs go to the bottom, too. Scatter your goat cheese chunks over top, and put uncovered in the oven. Bake for 15 or so minutes, until the eggs are set in the very centre of the pan. It’s pretty hard to overcook a frittata, so don’t be scared.
If you like herbs, I’ve found that a couple tablespoons of chopped basil or Italian parsley or cilantro all go a long ways with this. I serve mine with really nutty whole-grain toast and strong coffee, and that’s all it takes. ๐Ÿ™‚
Be ready to make fans when you serve this. And it’s liable to become your new favourite breakfast on weekends. I plan to try adding some asparagus next time instead of peppers, and chicken-apple sausage instead of chorizo. We’ll see how that works. Let me know how this works out for you. Enjoy!