Pasttata â Pasta Frittata
I have never been the biggest fan of quiches or frittatas. They arenât bad, but I would much rather an omelet or just scrambled eggs any day of the week. To me, it is easier and tastier and so why bother with the extra effort a quiche requires? Similarly, my grandmother used to make a baked egg and pasta dish she called pastair (sp?) pronounced pa-stare, or past â air. While my family was obsessed with it, I never really liked it all that much either. It was basically baked egg and pasta cooled down and cut into squares. I would hold it in my hand like a brownie and snack on it as a kid with my sister. What I made yesterday for breakfast was sort of a combo of these things that totally changed my mind about their goodness. With components of pastair, frittata, and quiche, this âpasttataâ (he he he) was fantastic, simple, and fun to make! I made it with pretty much all leftovers. I even made a quick breakfast sausage with some leftover ground beef I had in the fridge.
Everything is ready!
Bacon in, bacon crispy, bacon out. Spoon out some of the rendered fat. We want that flavor, but not ALL of it.
This was that quick homemade breakfast sausage I mentioned.
Some chopped onions in there too. Now remove the sausage and onions and again get rid of most of the fat. Add a small glug of olive oil and swish it around to coat the pan. The pan should be getting really hot right now. You want it hot so the eggy pasta doesnât stick.
This is 7 eggs and 1/2 pound of pasta.
Cheese in.
Cooked bacon and sausage in. And parsley.
Pan needs to be nice and hot and covered in oil and/or bacon and sausage fat.
Patted down
This was seriously soo good. I just finished eating some leftovers and let me tell you. Wow. Make it please. Make it for breakfast if you have people staying with you for holiday things. Or for brunch. It will be a crowd pleaser.
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Pasttata â Pasta Frittata
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 1/2 pound breakfast sausage
- 2 cups shredded cheese I used a mix of cheddar, jack, and provolone
- 7 eggs
- 1/2 pound pasta cooked to package instructions
- 1 small onion
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- salt pepper, paprika, chile flake to taste
Instructions
- Mix the eggs with the pasta and the cheese. Preheat the oven to 350.
- Cook the bacon, sausage, and onion in a hot large frying pan that can go into the oven.
- Remove the meat and veg from the pan when it is cooked. Drain some of the fat but leave enough to nicely coat the pan.
- Stir the meat and onion mixture into the pasta egg mix, along with the parsley and salt/pepper/etc
- Get the pan nice and hot on the stove. Add the pasta mixture and get it into the oven asap. Cook about 35 minutes until just set but not dried out.
- Allow to sit for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
WHAT!??! you didnt like PASTAIR!!?!!??! all those years it was all a lie???
I like your hair cut Mandi!
paula dean has a recipe for quiche where you back hash browns to make a crust and then fill itâŠi bet that would be better than a normal quiche.
oooh kim yeah i made that actually for my birthday breakfast for work this year! i did two different kinds but did them both with hashbrown crusts i got the idea from her. one had egg, cheddar cheese, sausage, onions and peppers and one had egg, spinich, provolone cheese, and carmalized onions. they were both super yummy!
This looks like lovinâ right there. Pure lovinâ.
Mandi your hair looks really good! OhâŠand so does the Pasttata ; P hehehe
This looks so incredibly delicious. Makes me want to invite some people for brunch just so I can make it! đ
lol iâve been beat to the punch â mand, your hair is totally feroushâŠthe pasttata looks pretty bangin too đ
The way you wrote the names on the seasonings made me smile. Especially when they were all mushed together in the paste. Looks yum đ
what is the best way to reheat this? Iâd like to make it for a get together this weekend. Or am I better off assembling at home and cooking at the party?
thanks~
hmmmmmm⊠mandi and I took it to work and just microwaved it and it tasted great, but that would be unacceptable for a party situation in my opinion. I think I would make it right before the party, make sure it came off the pan clean (didnt stick), then take it to the party (in that same pan)warm and throw it in the oven there for 10 minutes. Iâm not 100% sure about this, but that is my first thought. I donât think you have the fear of drying out or becoming rubbery because of the pasta and cheese in it. let me know if this works for you or what you try! also the thing is still tasty lukewarmâŠ
when i made that quiche for birthday breakfast at work i left it undercooked by about 10 minutes, covered it with tinfoil, wrapped it in a nice big towel, and the heat finished it up on my drive. it was done (even a little overdone) by the time i served it at work.
if i were you i would get it all mixed together, put it in the oven till it just starts to bubble slightly at the edges but no brown yet. wrap it up nice and tight with foil and a big towel and then when you get there pop it under the broiler to make sure its still warm and to get the top browned a little.
I think this is going to be my Boxing Day present to myself.
thanks for the feedback dan and mandi, iâm excited to bring it to this pot luck party on sunday and wow the crowd.
How is this under âcheapâ? The cheese alone would break the bank. Plus fresh herbs.
Welcome to my site âpoor college studentâ. my reasoning behind calling this cheap, is that it was made with mostly leftovers. instead of buying sausage, I used leftover beef and herbs. you could make it without the herbs, or with store bought sausage, or no sausage at all and it would still be delicious. as for the cheeses, I had all these in my fridge already and only used a little of each. you could just use cheddar if you wanted, or any cheese you had around. The point really is that it is just a method and good with any leftovers. I do admit though that if you followed this recipe exactly, and bought everything I outlined specifically just to make this, it wouldnât be cheap.
That looks like it would be great with some spinach! My mother makes a spinach quiche with spinach, egg, swiss, and bacon, so this reminds me a bit of that.
so original!! looks yummy. thanks!
Oh wow, that looks delicious! Iâll have to give that a try sometime soon.
Dan â
I made this for a holiday party yesterday. I used jimmy dean regular sausage in lieu of making my own, but I did add fresh parsley and sage to the mix before cooking it in the oven. I added the garlic near the end of cooking the sausage and onion. I used a whole pound of pasta so added 2 more eggs.
Anyways, it was a big hit and everyone wanted to know what it was. âpasttataâ, of course.
I did give you the cred, but your dish won the award for most talked about.
Oh and I ended up cooking it for 20 mins, drove it over to the party (1/2 hour drive) then cooked it at 400 for 10 minutes and broiled it for 4-5. It stuck the bottom of the pan, but it could have just been the pan; itâs not a super nice thick pan like yours.
This looks great, but⊠Am I missing something on the page? Like how much cheese? An actual recipe would be a super addition to the otherwise great presentation of this unique dish.
fresh in from the stumble button! great site!
i was curious if you had some more exact measurements for the ingredients, maybe in the form of a recipe. Iâd love to try this, but since i have a fiancĂ©, her uncle, myself and a child at home, there are rarely leftovers in our fridge. i will have to use fresh stuff. this sounds so much better than a plain olâ eggy quiche.
Cheers!
Hi there, I just wanted to let you know that I tried out this recipe and it was freakin AMAZING! I made it for my family on Christmas for breakfast and they loved it. I used different cheeses (five-year white cheddar, humboldt fog, gruyere, provolone, parmesan, and garlic jack) but it looked reasonably the same and tasted fantastic. I just wanted to let you know that you helped me make a meal that my entire family liked.
A side note, putting a cheese crust on this makes it even more amazing. I just shredded up gruyere and parmesan on top before I tossed it in the oven. Also, you can totally substitute the pasta for spinach, it actually makes it more flavorful because the pasta kind of saps the flavors. I just put the spinach in the pan and then poured the egg-meat-cheese mix over it with some olive oil at the bottom of the pan. Anyway, yes, thank you for the fantastic food. Well done!
I make something very similar! Although, not with the sausage â this is absolutely delicious. I thought I was full from dinner when I started reading this..and nowâŠhungry for this!
I made a pasttata today for my wifeâs birthday breakfast. It was a really big hit! I admit, I didnât make it with leftovers, but bought fresh ingredients for most everything. It was very cool to make my own sausage. I had never done that before, and it turned out great! One of the comments was to spread grated Parmesan cheese on the top before baking, and I did that too. So, the dish was a hit and the reheated leftovers will be enjoyed as a quick breakfast before work. Serendipity, I say, and thanks for the great recipe!
You should write a book!