Robin Ellis

A two-in-one recipe!

This pretty frittata (Italian omelette) requires a good dollop of peperonata turned into the egg mixture.

Frittatas are cooked SLOW SLOW (omelettes are cooked FAST).

Slow–to stop them drying out.

After a shy start, tomatoes are everywhere at the moment and local peppers are ripening, turning from green to red and yellow.

Time for one of my favourite CLASSICS of Italian summer vegetarian cooking!

Peperonata–a  sauce made from fresh, ripe tomatoes, red and yellow sweet peppers, onion and garlic.

Serve it on a piece of toast as a snack with a teaspoon of tapinade on top; or as a vegetable accompaniment; or reheated with a poached egg in the middle.

If you pour a little olive oil over the surface of any left-over sauce (should you have any!) in a plastic storage box, it will stay fresh longer.

First the peperonata:  (This recipe comes from my next cookbook, Healthy Eating for Life, coming out in January 2014).

750gms/1.5 lbs red and yellow peppers (or just red if you can’t find yellow)–seeded and sliced in strips

1 tbsp olive oil

350 gms/12 oz ripe tomatoes–peeled and chopped (peel by dropping them in a bowl of boiling water for a moment, then the skins comes off easily)

1 medium onion–sliced thinly

2 cloves of garlic–sliced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

• Heat the oil in a medium pan you can cover.
• Add the onion and soften it for five minutes; then add the sliced garlic–turning it in the onion and oil and cook for a couple of more minutes.
• Add the pepper slices and the bay leaves, turning these over in the mixture.

• Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes to soften the peppers, turning them a couple of times.
• Add the tomatoes, some salt and pepper, mix them in and cover the pan again–let this cook gently for 20 minutes.

• If the mix looks too liquid, cook it another 5 minutes or so uncovered.
• Add the teaspoon of balsamic and mix in well.

Now the Frittata

6 eggs

4 tbsp peperonata sauce

salt and pepper

1 heaped tbsp parmesan cheese–grated

Break the eggs into large bowl.

Whisk them together.

Fold in the peperonata and the parmesan cheese.

Season with salt and pepper.

Turn everything over so the sauce is distributed evenly in the egg mix.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan (8.5″/22cm).

When it is hot pour in the frittata mix.

Turn the heat down to the lowest setting. A heat disperser (flame tamer) is a good idea.

It will take about 25 minutes–but keep a watch.

When only a small puddle of egg mix remains uncooked, slide the pan under a hot grill for a minute to finish off.

Using a spatula or fish slice…

ease the frittata carefully from the pan and slide it onto a serving plate.

Serves four as a starter…

…or two for lunch.

All that was left!