Refrigerator clean out night

It was a time for an honored tradition in the kitchen today – cleaning out the refrigerator. Last night my wife had an idea for tonight’s dinner and since I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping this afternoon, I had to make due with what we already had on hand.

Staring in the old icebox there was a solitary sausage link, some bacon that needs to be put to use, half a bag of baby spinach, a red bell pepper, and a quarter of a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese calling to me. Over in the pantry we had a red onion and a potato that were nearing the end of their useful life.

So, I grabbed all these somewhat congruent ingredients along with some eggs, milk and the undisputed king of cheese (parmigiano reggiano) and got to work dicing, chopping and grating.

Frittata anyone?

Probably some of the most fun I have in the kitchen is when I have to improvise and that is basically what happens anytime I’m making a frittata. I feel like I’m on an episode of Chopped except without the annoying mandatory ingredient from out of left field. Now, I’m not sure you can define what I make as a classic frittata, but I start it in a sauté pan and finish it in the oven, so to me it’s a frittata.

I start out by rendering the bacon and then adding the sausage that I’ve diced up. As that mixture gets crispy I toss in the diced potato and let the three get happy in the pan for at least twenty minutes, or at least until they are all nice and browned. Then I like to toss in the aromatics and this time I’m adding in the onion and red bell pepper.

In a separate bowl I whisk together the eggs and add half of the grated parmigiano reggiano and some milk to increase the volume a little bit. Then comes the baby spinach which I decided to chiffonade because I didn’t want big chunks that get stuck in your teeth for the finished product and the little ribbons of spinach whisk together much easier.

When the aromatics get all translucent, I pour in the egg, cheese and spinach mixture, working it around the sauté pan to make sure it is evenly distributed and coating what was already in the pan. I will usually let that sit on the cooktop on medium heat for about ten minutes, or until the eggs look like they are setting up.

Once the egg mixture looks about set I top off the whole thing with the contents of the bag of shredded mozzarella and dust that with the remaining parmigiano. Then it’s time to transfer the pan into the oven that I preheated to 375 degrees for about five minutes. That gives the cheese some time to gently melt over the top before I turn the broiler on high for another five minutes to give the top a nice crust.

The result is a nice meal that doesn’t let anything go to waste and is usually big enough for us to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

So, what type of creative things to do you do when its time to clean out your fridge?

Tagged as: Cheese, Cook, Home, leftovers, Mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Refrigerator, Sausage, Spinach