#87 Baked Florentine Omelette

I've never baked an Omelette before. I didn't know I could. This recipe looked fancy and so I decided to give it a try. It was great! I added the spinach after the cheese, and some of the leaves that weren't submerged in the egg mixture were toasted. I like it, but if you would rather have a soft spinach encased in the baked eggs, then I suggest that you fold the spinach in the egg mixture before adding the shredded mozzarella on top. This was different, a little too loaded with cheese and milk for my usual breakfast, but it was great tasting for a change. Probably one of the best omelettes that I have ever tried.

Recipe adapted from Mr. Spinach, featured on mrbreakfast.com

Yield: 6 servings

BAKED FLORENTINE OMELETTE

Ingredients:

8 large eggs- well beaten

1 cup Ricotta cheese

1/2 cup milk

1 cup mozarella cheese-shredded

1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions

5 leaves fresh basil-chopped

2 sprigs fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 10 oz. package (about 1 and 1/2 cups) frozen chopped spinach- thawed and drained well

1 cup coarsely chopped plum tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and Ricotta cheese until just combined. Stir in milk, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Fold in tomatoes and scallions. If you want your spinach to be soft, fold it in as well.

Spread mixture evenly on the prepared baking dish. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese, and spinach.(Putting the spinach on top will result to some of the leaves toasted when done.)

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Omelette or omelet, is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked in a very hot pan. Some say it is an ancient dish that originated in present day Middle East. It then spread to Europe. The French word Omelette which appeared in the book, Cuisine bourgoise in 1784, has many variations: alumelle and alumete are employed by the French medieval guidebook for women: Ménagier de Paris (II, 5) in 1393 . François Rabelais, a French doctor, and considered one the greatest writers of world literature in Europe,writer, monk, greek scholar and renaissance humanist(Pantagruel, IV, 9) mentions an homelaicte d'oeufs, Olivier de Serres, author and soil scientist, an amelette, François Pierre La Varenne's Le cuisinier françois (1651), the founding text of modern french cuisine has aumelette. There are many variations of Omelette all over the world, one of my posts featured a Japanese variation: Omelette Roll.

 

Very, very good!