I usually make mine in my cast iron skillet, which I can just toss into the oven. I'm not a fan of glass pie plates and don't own one. Mine usually have diced red capsicums, some finely sliced spring onion green, strips of sun dried tomatoes and small cubes of feta.

Oooh, a fritatta sounds good about now! I can't say I've ever made one, though.

I wish I had wall ovens -- so much more ergonomic than the bending and lifting required with range ovens.

I usually make them in a skillet too. I thought I'd made one from a recipe awhile back, but can't find any such thing. Number of eggs is at least three and at most a dozen, depending on pan size. The great thing about a frittata is you can put just about anything in one. I don't use cheese, but I do in an omelette. I do use roots if I want, which I don't do in an omelette. I'm more likely to cover than put in the oven, but I've done that too.

While I was looking I found this omelette recipe in my files. I don't think I've made it because I don't like olives, but it reads like something I think you'd like, Lars. I don't know where I got it.

Adapted from Brigitte Tilleray's "The French Woman's Kitchen"

Omelette paysanne de Nyons (omelette with potatoes, bacon, and olives):

Serves 6

2 TBS olive oil
6 potatoes, thinly sliced (we use 6 small red potatoes)
4 oz. unsmoked bacon, cubed
1 onion (small), sliced
12 eggs (the freshest you can find).
3 basil leaves, torn
1 small garlic clove, crushed
4 oz. pitted black olives (we like the oil cured Moroccan), chopped
pepper (grinding your own from peppercorns makes a difference. We like Wynad peppercorns)

Heat the olive oil in a large omelette pan. Sauté the sliced potatoes, onion, and bacon. Lower heat and cook gently until the potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl and add the torn basil leaves, garlic, olives, and black pepper.

Bring omelette pan back to medium heat and pour in the egg mixture, stirring with a flat wooden spoon until the omelette is set and golden brown underneath, but still moist on top.

Slide the omelette onto a heated serving plate and serve immediately with a salad of lettuce and dandelion leaves in a garlic vinaigrette.

my favorite fritatta is when I have leftovers of a green beans/tomato/garlic dish that we love, and a few leftover roasted potatoes. I think fennel is great in a fritatta also.

I use my enameled le crueset cast iron frying pan (9 inch I think) and cook it mostly on the stovetop and finish it under the broier in my toaster oven with cheese on top (fontina is a fave) to get browned and bubbly.

I have a pie dish exactly like that, we use it all the time!

I also do it on the hob in a metal pan. After all 'frittata' literally means fried rather than baked. I sauté the veg in the same pan, not separately. Then push the veg aside and to avoid sticking pour in some egg under the vegetables. Any cheese goes in above the bottom layer too or it can stick. I make them relatively thin so I don't get overcooked outsides. I never use a recipe. This one seems to have broccoli but I have no recollection what else went into it. If it had potatoes I'd be inclined to think of it more as a tortilla. But since there are so many possible variations I don't think it really matters what you call it.

I love olives but never thought to add them to any eggs other than adding green olives to an egg salad sandwich. Someone mentioned adding artichokes to frittata recently and that sounds good to me! I’ve used garlic scapes and sweet potato in omelettes and love the combination.

I like bacon and leeks. Cook your bacon, add about 3 thinly sliced leeks and cook until really soft and sweet, add the eggs and seasoning. I bake these in individual silicone cases in the air fryer.

Personally, I wouldn't add water to the eggs. What is the reason for doing that? I always stop cooking while there's still a jiggle in the middle as it will continue to cook a little after you take it out of the oven.

Goat's cheese is nice with leeks.

Potatoes and anything LOL

Spinach and salmon

Agree about no water. Not in frittata or omelettes. Neve heard of adding it.

Adding water (or milk) to eggs makes them fluffier or creamier. Some people add cream, but I do not want more dairy in my eggs, as it upsets my stomach.

I've tried it with and without water, and I much prefer the results when water is added to the eggs - one teaspoon per egg. Omelets made without water taste too tough for me, and it is easy to overcook the eggs. Since I do not particularly like eggs in the first place, diluting them makes them more palatable to me. Making frittatas also dilutes the flavor of the eggs, and this is why I like them.

I like diluted eggs - I do not like undiluted eggs, which is why I hate fried eggs, soft boiled eggs, poached eggs, etc. I only like hard boiled eggs when they are an ingredient in a much larger dish.

I first learned about adding 1 teaspoon of water to each egg from the Frugal Gourmet, but I have also noticed that ATK also adds liquid (water or milk) to eggs in the same proportion. ATK gave a reason for adding liquid to eggs, but I do not remember what it was.

I add water to scrambled eggs as well.

I always add a little milk to scrambled eggs. It just helps with texture, along with enough whisking.

For frittatas, I like this version and have added asparagus or sausage.

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/potato-basil-frittata-1

I really like this Ina Garten Recipe that uses roasted vegetables. I do find if you do the full recipe you can almost double the vegetables as they shrink when roasted. I usually make a 1/2 recipe with the amount of veggies in the full recipe. You can certainly add subtract other veggies/proteins. If I make this in the morning I roast the veggies the night before to save time in the am. We like goat cheese and feta as well in our frittatas. I typically use my scanpan nonstick.

Roasted Vegetable Frittata

Kim, I need to try that one.

I tend to bake my frittatas in a 9" square glass pan. Knock on wood, I've never had one stick to the pan.

Lars, I use a Pyrex pie pan just like yours and I have double wall ovens, electric.

I've tried starting in the skillet on the stove and finishing in the oven and quit doing that, it always stuck and usually got too brown on the bottom before it was done in the middle. I don't want my eggs in a frittata "wet", I want them firm and cooked entirely or the texture gives me the "ick" factor but I don't want that tough brown layer on the bottom either.

As has been said above, it really seems much like an omelet to me, or maybe quiche without the crust. When I do make one I add lots of eggs because I always have lots, maybe 3 eggs per person, and a splash of milk or cream. Elery likes sliced potatoes and whatever vegetables we have, along with some queso fresco or feta. I prefer mine with no cheese and more vegetables, usually no meat.

Annie

I used to make fritattas all the time when I was trying to make quiche. That was when quiche was cool, so as One Learning To Cook I wanted to impress my girlfriend.

I stopped trying to make quiche because I couldn’t and SWMBO complained when I failed. I stopped making fritattas because doing so meant failure.

Omelettes were within my ability so that’s how I usually made, make, will make eggs.

I’m glad Lars started this thread. It is time to exorcise my Fritatta = Failure demons. I shall buy some eggs and try to make a fritatta. Everything is topsy-turvy now so perhaps I will end up with a quiche, and SWMBO will finally be pleased. I will never *try* to make a quiche, though. Some traumas go too deep.

[Goes to buy eggs]

I’m back. I hope prime rib is okay tonight? I’m on a budget :-(

Quiche is a custard, usually baked in a pie crust. As has been said up topic, a frittata is fried. It has eggs surrounding fried stuff, and no milk, usually with an almost lacy texture Omelets or omelettes are stretchy terms but in the most basic form is a pristine fluffy blanket of eggs, often with a splash of milk but not enough to make a custard, which has a very even texture and is usually rolled or folded, often over a filling which is added after the pan side of the eggs have firmed up, and a sauce or hash might be added to the top. If you ever want to try a ”quiche” again, follow a Julia Child recipe, but maybe leave out the extra dabs of butter…

John, start with a proper quiche Lorraine. It's the best base to start from. Once you master this, other quiches will be a breeze LOL

https://thegreedyfrog.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/the-real-quiche-lorraine-warning-no-cheese-or-onions-allowed/

Then you can make with or without the pastry. I love a leek and bacon one.

Most recipes for frittatas that I have seen are not fried but instead are baked and have either milk or water added to them. They are essentially crustless quiche.

To me, a fried frittata would be an omelet, but it really does not matter what anyone calls it - I only care about how it tastes. A Spanish tortilla has no resemblance to a Mexican tortilla.

Quiche Lorraine is not my favorite quiche, but then I am not much of a bacon and eggs person.

I always add a small amount of heavy cream to my eggs when I scramble them; if I don't have cream (which is rare), I'll use whole milk. It makes the eggs fluffier.

I use water, because my husband is sensitive to milk or cream. He is okay with cheese. Oldest grandson cannot have the least amount of dairy. He ends up in the emergency room. Liquid does make the eggs softer and fluffier.

Water is not unusual in a frittata. Lars's baked frittatas in pie plates is totally new to me. The most universal distinction I could find on a quick web search is that the omelette has the eggs set on the bottom before the other stuff is added, whereas in a frittata they're all combined from the start. Since ”frittata” literally means fried, its origins really are in the frying pan. In my exposure to them, they were much thinner than the pictures I've just seen. I'm used to frittata being larger slices of things, held together by eggs filling the spaces, giving a kind of rustic stained glass look, rather than a thick egg dish with sparser chopped bits of stuff, such as these pictures show. Definitely drift in meanings. No wonder there's so much confusion of terms! All these egg dishes are merging!

But the quiche stands alone. By definition, it is a custard, with a significant amount of milk and/or cream. My standard recipe is 1.75 c. milk/cream to 6 eggs. My favorite Julia Child recipe is 3 cups heavy whipping cream to 6 eggs. (Both for 9” pie plates.)

I do three eggs to a cup of cream (Mrs Beeton's proportions :-) ). Extended family raves about my quiches so I usually bring one to family potlucks as they are always popular.

Eggs, cottage cheese, canned green chilis, small amt of flour, cheese baked in a 9 by 13 pyrex pan. Yum!

This thread inspired me to ask DH if he wanted me to start making him breakfast frittatas again. I maake a large frittata and cut it into portions, and for a quick breakfast he has a slice before dashing off to work. The most recent ones have had spring onions, mushrooms, ham, sun dried tomatoes, diced red capsicum and small cubes of feta. DH is very happy :-)

RNmomof2, thanks for reminding me that I have a recipe very similar to that and I like it a lot, it makes a quick meal with a salad or vegetable on the side.

Colleen, I always forget. Is capsicum sweet red pepper or hot red pepper? I'd like sweet pepper and I still have a little of the good feta from the last trip to Mediterranean Island. Elery would prefer hot peppers, of course and that's a difference we'll never be able to bridge, I'm afraid.

Annie

Capsicums are bell peppers. The red ones are much sweeter than the green ones. Hot red pepper are chillies.