Frittata Chicken "Marengo", ala Bertucci's
Jun 07 '00
When I lived in Boston, my favorite pizza chain was Bertucci's. They have wood-fired ovens and an unmatched crust, chewy and thin, with a fantastic texture and enough body to hold whatever toppings you wanted to heap on it. My favorite pizza at Bertucci's is a special combination they call Marengo, which combines sliced tomatoes (no sauce); chicken sauteed in white wine, garlic, and herbs; roasted red and green peppers; a sprinkle of red peppers; and mozzarella cheese over all. It's a simply divine combination.
Here in Arizona, there are no Bertucci's. And to make matters worse for the Marengo-lover in me, I've adopted a low-carbohydrate lifestyle, and pizza is right out, except for special occasions. But neither of these two factors prevents me from getting my Marengo fix from time to time, because I just make myself a Marengo frittata.
What's a frittata?
A frittata is a kind of Spanish omelette that you don't flip. You cook it on the stove top until the bottom is cooked, and then run it under the broiler to finish the top. They are extremely versatile and easy to prepare, and an excellent way to use up leftover bits of meat and vegetables. You could think of this as sort of a crustless quiche.
This particular frittata goes together in a snap if you happen to have a jar of roasted peppers in the house and some leftover cooked chicken or turkey. If you have to roast the peppers and saute the chicken, I wouldn't call this a quick cook -- but it's really worth the effort!
To make this frittata, you will need a 12-inch non-stick skillet that can stand up to being popped under a broiler for 5 or 10 minutes. Most skillets can handle this just fine. It's the handles that are the problem, but I have found if you turn the pan so that the handle is not directly under the flames, it doesn't approach dangerous temperatures.
Ingredients
for the pan:
1 T olive oil
frittata base:
6 large eggs
1/4 Cup grated parmesan cheese
generous grinding black pepper
pinch salt
Toppings:
3 or 4 plum tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
about 3/4 C of roasted pepper slices, or more to taste
(I recommend the Mezzeta brand of roasted red peppers; if you're roasting your own, use 1 medium sized red, and 1 medium sized green)
about 1-1/2 to 2 C cooked chicken or turkey, cut into bite-size pieces or shredded
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 C grated mozzarella cheese (more to taste)
1/4 C parmesan cheese
Preparation
In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the eggs, parmesan, salt and pepper, and stir vigorously with a fork until well-blended. Low fat tip: remove all but two egg yolks, add two additional egg whites.
Heat the non-stick skillet with the olive oil, swirling to coat. Low fat tip: spray with non-stick cooking spray. For the decadent: use clarified butter, or plugra (European style butter), instead of the olive oil.
Pour the egg-parmesan mixture into the pan, and set the heat to medium-high. Let the mixture cook for a minute or two, and then gently move the eggs around in the pan a bit, to get the uncooked eggs down to the surface of the pan. Don't be too enthusiastic with this, you just want to set the eggs a bit. You're not making scrambled eggs here.
After about 2 or 3 minutes, layer the toppings onto the somewhat-set eggs as follows:
Arrange the tomato slices evenly around the pan
Scatter the pepper slices in between the tomatoes
Sprinkle the chicken evenly over vegetables
Sprinkle the red pepper flakes carefully, evenly over all -- if you like spicy, you can use more; if you don't like spicy you could cut this down to 1/8 tsp, but I wouldn't skip it altogether, it really adds something
Add the mozzarella on top of the chicken, and then the parmesan over all.
Let the assembled frittata continue cooking on the top of the stove for another 6-8 minutes, tilting the pan occasionally to see how much liquid will run up the sides. Once the edges of the eggs are opaque and set, fire up your broiler, and arrange the rack so that the pan will be about 3-4 inches from the flames. In my oven, I don't use the top-most rack setting, but the next one down.
Place the frittata under the broiler, and let it cook until the mozzarella melts and begins to bubble and brown. The parmesan will brown first, so you have to watch this closely. In my broiler, it takes about 6 or 7 minutes for the cheese to melt and brown to where I like it.
Remove from the oven carefully, and let sit on the stove top for a few minutes to begin cooling and to set.
I have had tremendous luck just sliding the frittata out of the pan onto a serving plate; give it a try. Let it cool on the plate a bit more, if it's still too hot it won't hold up well when you cut it.
Cut into wedges and serve with a green salad, and if you're not low-carb, a crusty bread. A nice white table wine would be delicious with this, but I won't venture into giving wine recommendations!
Theoretically, this could serve 6 but more realistically it serves 4.
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Epinions.com ID:
QuietI
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Member: Joan Hedman
Location: Chandler, AZ
Reviews written: 89
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
Busy. Life. You know.
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