Primal Cooking: Sausage, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata

Hello, Primal Challengers! Bob and Antonie have graciously linked to some of my posts over at my blog in the past and now they invited me to contribute! I am excited and honored to be part of the crew. I intend to post recipes with photos, thoughts and tips on living primally in college, and any exciting things I come across pertaining to the primal lifestyle.

I began the primal challenge a month at the beginning of August, right before I met Bob and Antonie in New York at the FEE mansion, and I’ve seen significant improvements (more on that later). I love to cook, so I began cooking primal dishes right away. I will post the successful ones here. Oh, and I am listening to the audiobook of Wheat Belly during my walks to and from classes, so expect a review sometime in the next month.

Without further adieu, my sausage, spinach, and tomato frittata:

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Sausage, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata

Ingredients

• 5 eggs (I had some quality Amish eggs from the farmer’s market)
• a red, yellow, or green pepper
• 1 shallot or 1/2 cooking onion
• 2 quality large Italian sausage links, skin removed (I got mine from a local butcher back home – stay away from the mass produced grocery store stuff if you can)
• a few handfuls of fresh spinach
• 1 tomato
• 1 clove of garlic

A lot of what I make comes about by looking in the fridge, surveying what I have on hand, and making something out of it. I did just this yesterday night. After I saw the eggs, peppers, spinach, and tomatoes, the thought, “Aha! I’ll make a frittata!” came to me. It only took 30 minutes from the time I had the idea until I began eating my creation. This is a quick and easy meal.

Here is what you do:
Take the skin off of the sausage and start browning it in a fairly large pan, breaking the sausage up as it browns. Dice up the shallot, garlic, tomato, spinach, and pepper, and toss it all into the pan when the sausage is sufficiently browned. Saute everything together for a few minutes. Meanwhile, crack 5 eggs (or however many you want, depending on how thick you want the frittata) into a large bowl. Whisk the eggs like you are going to scramble them, then add the sauteed meat and veggies to the bowl with the eggs. Mix everything together well, then pour the whole mixture back into the pan. Let it cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until the whole thing looks pretty done. Do not stir it or mix it up. The goal is to have a flat, thick sheet of egg, meat, and veggie goodness, not a massive batch of scrambled eggs. Once the whole sheet of eggs looks pretty done (the bottom should be almost crisp), throw it under the broiler for 5 minutes to firm up and brown the top. Aim for a nice golden color. Once it is finished, carefully remove the whole thing from the pan, grind some black pepper on top to taste, and cut it like you would cut a pizza. Enjoy!

You do not by any means have to stick to this recipe. Experiment! Have some leftover veggies or meat? A favorite veggie/meat combo? Throw it in! Try something new!

Also, this is a dish for any meal. I used to think eggs were only a breakfast food, but mixing eggs with things I wouldn’t normally eat for breakfast opened up a lot of new options for me. This was a great dinner for me, but it can easily be lunch the next day. I eat it like I would eat a piece of pizza. For breakfast, try using some ham instead of Italian sausage. Asparagus would be delicious in this as well. Experiment and let me know your results in the comments!

Questions? Ask away in the comments!