Today’s post comes from one of our newer farmers, Jessie Temple of Feathers & Fruit (formerly Original Pilgrim’s Products). Jessie and her husband Robert farm 18 acres next to a Soddy-Daisy suburban neighborhood. Their focus is on the feathers, with nearly 200 laying hens, but they also have fruit, flowers, and a couple of lawn mowing pygmy goats. Find them on Facebook, visit their website, come see them at Market, or learn more about eggs with Jessie this Saturday at Crabtree Farms’ plant sale. Thanks, Jessie!

Frittata is an egg-based Italian dish similar to an omelette or crustless quiche or scrambled eggs, enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses or vegetables. The word frittata is Italian and roughly translates to “fried”.

One of the biggest struggles I have with the slow food movement is slowing down long enough to cook the local, all naturally grown delicious food. It is a tricky balance of eating healthy and quick so I shout it from the rooftops when I, as a novice cook and farmer, find a recipe that creates a fast, nutritious meal.

I am also a fan of recipes that have no measurement or steps as to decrease the odds of messing it up. If you like your eggs runnier, then bake it for 2 minutes less. I look at cooking as a science experiment because, in my kitchen, things can blow up. To understand my lack of confidence in front of the stove, I have burned hard boiled eggs..multiple times. So I do make one rule at least: step one, have a timer.

Now for the rest of the guidelines for this simple, quick delicious dish!

Preheat oven to 350

One dozen eggs

Farm fresh, unrefrigerated, unwashed is best of course.

Cracked into a greased or lined muffin pan.

Vegetables to your liking

I prefer sweet peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes because I always find them going bad before my other veggies.

Meats in moderation

I use leftover bacon from the morning before breakfast and a couple strips goes a long way. I also like Benton’s Bacon cured ham cubes. Both of these pork products are salty enough to enhance flavor without additional seasoning. Hoe Hop’s ground sausage is delicious too.

Cheese choices

A simple shredded blend would suffice or use slices of Sequatchie Cove Nickajack or crumbles from Rafting Goat Cheese’s Garlic and Herb goat cheese. I always joke that I’m cheesy enough so I do leave a few pockets cheeseless for a variety

Bake 10 minutes but feel free to experiment with timing. Sometimes you might like your yolk over easy to enjoy these egg pockets on bread. The recipe resources I gathered this concoction from said to bake for 12 minutes or more but I found it dried it out. Some say the world is your oyster but I prefer the world is my frittata: enriching, colorful, flavorful, fulfilling and sometimes a little cheesy 😉