Spinach & Mushroom Fritatta

• 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, scrambled in a cup
• 1/2 cup button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 cup fresh spinach, loosely packed
• 3 strips turkey bacon, chopped
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• salt & pepper to taste

Set the oven to broil (425°) and move the oven baking rack to the second-highest position. If you have uncooked bacon in the fridge, dice three strips and cook them over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, quarter the mushrooms, measure out the spinach, and mix the eggs (if you have pre-cooked bacon, just crumble and add it before the eggs).

Add the mushrooms to the pan along with half of the butter. When the bacon is firm and the mushrooms start to brown, toss in the spinach with a pinch of kosher salt and cover the pan with the bottom of a plate for a minute or two. The steam will wilt the spinach so that it’s manageable.

Grind in a little black pepper and add the last bit of butter. Stir everything again and pour in the eggs. Make sure the eggs are evenly distributed and immediately remove the pan from the stovetop or else the bottom of the fritatta will overcook. Set the pan beneath the broiler until the top of the fritatta is just firm. If you have decent decent cookware, it’ll slide out of the pan and onto a plate with ease. Season with salt and pepper and your favorite hot sauce if necessary.

This post is supposed to demonstrate how to cook a fritatta. You can use any toppings you have on hand. I’ve also been using my homemade Italian sausage to make sausage, onion and pepper fritattas.

Here’s everything you need:

Pasta With Mushroom Cream Sauce

• ½ pound farfalle pasta
• 2 cups button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup beef stock (low sodium)
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
• salt & pepper to taste

This is a really easy recipe. Start off by heating a pot of salted water for your pasta. Next, mince the shallot and garlic, chop the sage, and slice the mushrooms. As I’ve mentioned before, the wife doesn’t like mushrooms. I leave them pretty big so she can pick them out, but thinner slices make a more flavorful sauce.

To begin, melt two tablespoons of butter over medium high heat. Add half of the sage, the minced shallot, and sliced mushrooms. The mushrooms will eventually soak up all the butter, but resist the urge to add a little olive oil or more butter. It’ll just make the sauce oily at the end. When the mushrooms have a nice sear on them, add the beef stock and garlic to the pan and simmer until the mushrooms have absorbed most of the stock. Then add a big pinch of salt and simmer for another minute or two. When the mushrooms start to release their moisture, add the remaining butter.

At this point, the water should be boiling. Add a half pound of pasta and cook according to the package directions. When the butter has melted in the skillet, add the cream and reduce the heat to low/medium low. You want it to be at a gentle simmer. The longer the sauce simmers, more of the mushroom flavor will incorporate with the sauce.

Cook the pasta until it’s about a minute or two from being done. Add a ladle full of water to the sauce, strain the pasta, and add it to the pan with the simmering sauce. Turn the heat up to medium, toss in the remaining sage, and cook until most of the sauce has evaporated or been absorbed by the noodles. Season to taste with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Garnish with fresh sage and freshly grated parmesan cheese if you wish.

Here’s everything you need:

Fried Meatballs

• 1/2 pound pork sausage
• 1/2 pound ground veal
• 1/3 cup freshly chopped breadcrumbs
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
• 1+ tablespoon olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Mushroom-Burgundy Sauce

• 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup chicken or beef stock
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• salt & pepper to taste

These meatballs are Austrian-style, similar to Fleischlaibchen. As far as the preparing the meatballs, there’s not much to explain. Just mix everything together in a bowl. I made my own breadcrumbs from old cubes of homemade bread that I keep in the freezer.

Separate the meatball mixture into four equal-sized balls and then press them into patties. Preheat the oven to 400°. Meanwhile, warm the olive oil over medium heat a large, oven-proof skillet. Add the meatball patties and cook for about 5 minutes. You want the bottoms of the meatballs to get a nice sear, but not burn.

Flip the meatballs and pour off the excess fat. Put the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the patties are cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. You might want to pour off the excess fat again halfway through. You could use a broiler pan for this step if you’re really trying to cook lean. But if that’s your goal, you shouldn’t be cooking this dish to begin with. This is just a bunch of meat and butter with added flavorings.

When the meatballs are finished cooking, they should have a crispy crust and the internal temperature should be about 155°. If you press down on them with your finger, they should give like a rare steak. Remove the patties and let them rest under foil on a warm plate. They’ll finish cooking in the gravy.

Pour off most of the excess fat (reserve a tablespoon or two), but don’t scrape or rinse the pan. Put the pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and toss them to coat in the remaining oil. Once they suck up all the moisture like a sponge, add half of the butter to the pan to keep them from burning. Sauté them until they’re seared around the edges. At that point, add a pinch each of salt and pepper so the mushrooms will release their moisture. Cook them for another couple of minutes until the liquid evaporates and then add the wine. We’re pretty poor, so we don’t usually have burgundy laying around the house. Pinot Noir work just as well. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the pan clean. While the wine is reducing, measure out the stock and add the flour to the cup and mix very well. When the wine has reduced by half, add the stock to the pan and stir to blend. Reduce the heat to a medium simmer and let the liquid reduce by half again.

When the liquid has reduced, add the meatballs to the pan and continue to simmer until the sauce coats the back of the spoon. Flip the patties to coat both sides and then plate them. By this time, the sauce should be nice and thick.

Spoon some of the mushroom burgundy sauce over the fried meatballs and dig in. We served this with some sweet and sour red cabbage and breaded spaetzle. It was a very Austrian meal, pretty much by accident. We tried a box of dried spaetzle from the “ethnic” section of the grocery store instead of making it from scratch. It wasn’t as good as the fresh stuff, but it was a whole lot easier.

If you’d like more gravy, then double the sauce recipe (but not the amount of butter) and don’t reduce it as much. That should make enough to allow you to serve this over some rice or mashed potatoes. I just wanted to have enough sauce to flavor the meatballs and the spaetzle. And feel free to double the amount of mushrooms in the sauce. The wife’s not a big fan, so I usually hold back more than I’d prefer.