Who out there has ever had breakfast for dinner? Let’s just call it BFD for short. As a child it was one of my favorite dinners. Eggs. Ham or bacon. Toast. Simple perfection. Now, as an adult, I still find myself craving breakfast for dinner even when I have already had it for breakfast. Well, this sausage, leek, and mushroom frittata will kick your BFD night up a few notches.
We all need a handful of simple dinners that we can use as our go-to on nights when time or our energy is sparse. I created this recipe on one of those nights when I was tired, didn’t have much time, and not many ingredients in the fridge. Have you been there before? You open the fridge and stare into it hoping that some brilliant dinner revelation is going to jump out at you. Or, even better, you hope a fully prepared meal will jump out of your fridge and onto your dinner table. Am I right? Have you had these experiences like I have?
Fortunately, sometimes these moments of desperation (not to sound dramatic) are when some of my best, yet simple, meals are created. I was staring into the fridge one evening and I saw eggs, some leftover ham, onions, and some cheese. Since we are a house of egg lovers as well as breakfast, the solution was simple. Make breakfast.
Initially I was going to make omelets, but even that sounded too complicated for the evening. Who wants to stand at stove and make individual omelets for everyone? My solution was to make a crustless quiche that, in my opinion, is a frittata. Problem solved!
Usually, the frittata ingredients would vary based on what was in our fridge. One week I had a pack of breakfast sausage from our meat guy, some leeks that looked a bit past their prime, and some Maitake mushrooms. Ideas were lacking, again, so I threw every thing into some scrambled eggs and baked it. This sausage, leek, and mushroom frittata turned out to be our favorite and now we have it at least every other week.
With that said, my advice is to use this sausage, leek and mushroom frittata recipe for inspiration on those nights where you feel like your fridge is empty and your brain is tired. It is totally customizable to you. Open your fridge and see what at you have stashed away. For most ingredients, you will need to cook them somewhat on the stove before you mix them into eggs. Make sure you let any items that you cook cool before mixing them into the eggs. You don’t start “cooking” the eggs in the mixing bowl.
If your family doesn’t eat meat, then leave it out and add some vegetables or even more cheese to amp up the flavor of the frittata. During Lent, this a veggie and cheese version of the frittata is a frequent staple on Fridays. We tend to have this frittata for dinner and then the leftovers for lunch the following day. Despite our preference, the frittata makes for an ideal brunch item or even fancy breakfast food as well. Although I always advocate for bringing your meal to the table and enjoying it, sometimes we need a food-on-the-go and this frittata fits the bill. It is sturdy. You can easily pick it up like a scone and eat it rather than with a fork and knife. So, whether it is dinner, breakfast, brunch, or meal-on-the-run, I find this frittata delicious and adaptable. I hope you do as well!
Sausage, Leek, and Mushroom Frittata
Ingredients
- 8-10 eggs
- 1 large leek cut lengthwise, then into half circles
- 1 lb. ground breakfast sausage
- 8 oz mushrooms, broken or cut into quarter size pieces See Note
- ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese (any cheese will work)
- 1-2 tbsp. butter
- fresh thyme optional
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter an 8-inch cast iron pan or something similar in size. Pie/cake dish also works well here.
- In sauté pan over medium heat, cook sausage until golden brown. Crumble sausage into marble sized pieces. Remove cooked sausage from pan and set aside leaving behind as much of the flavorful oil as possible.
- If pan seems dry, add some butter to sausage fat. Over medium heat, sauté the leeks until they start to caramelize. Add in mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms and leeks are golden brown but not burnt.
- Let leeks and mushrooms cool down while you prepare the eggs.
- In medium bowl, whisk the eggs until slightly frothy. Season the eggs with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme leaves if desired
- Once leeks, mushrooms, and sausage have cooled to room temp, add them into the egg mixture along with cheese. Stir until combined. Pour mixture into prepped cast iron.
- Bake in oven until center is set. Will still have slight jiggle. Remove from oven and let cool. Frittata can be eaten fresh from the oven or cooled to room temp.
Notes
[nutrifox id=”29050″]
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