This chipotle frittata with marinated vegetables and scamorza is a great way to enjoy eggs.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
I haven’t met an omelette I didn’t like, whatever its cultural inclinations. In fact, for about a decade, the Spanish tortilla became a signature dish amongst my friends who brunched. Then I started homeschooling, and basically, stopped entertaining during the weekdays!
Little did my friends know that the reason I always made the tortilla was because it was super easy! And the same goes for the Italian frittata, it really is the easiest thing in the world.
What is Frittata?
Frittata is the quintessential Italian home food. The sort of recipe that you don’t really find in a restaurant and that’s whipped up 😉 at home with eggs and whatever one might have in hand. No recipe necessary, it is the simplest of foods. Perfection created from a mess.
Frittate (plural) are therefore, usually simple affairs.
The word frittata comes from friggere, which means to fry. While modern Italian cuisine has many variations of frittata al forno (in the oven), traditionally, frittata is cooked on the stove top, in a frying pan. It’s flipped over to brown the other side, and not placed under the grill (broiler). And that’s what we’ll be doing with our chipotle frittata, all on the stove top.
Chipotle Frittata Recipe
So let’s talk about today’s recipe. LinsFood’s homemade chipotle paste is one of the most popular pages on this site, and I am constantly getting requests for more recipes that use the paste.
As spicy omelettes are a favourite thing in my home, making a spicy frittata didn’t require a giant leap, as you can well imagine. Honestly, it’s tough not to make omelettes with all the various chilli pastes I have in the fridge. Like our Red Chilli Pesto Omelette below.
This chipotle frittata came about much in the same way that traditional frittate do. Basically, I needed to clear up the fridge and came across the last batch of chipotle paste, as well as a couple of open jars of antipasti. And when I saw the packet of spizzico di scamorza affumicata (see more below), it was as if the pieces of a puzzle just fell into place.
I’m a huge fan of marinated vegetables, the sort that are sold as antipasti. They add a lovely, deep flavour to a dish. I decided to go the distance and aim for a full on frittata with maximum flavour, with the vegetables, the smoky, spicy chipotle paste and the lightly smoked scamorza. Trust me, it hit all the right spots!
Chipotle Frittata Ingredients
What is Chipotle Paste?
This is essentially, a smoky, slightly spicy chilli paste made from chipotle chillies. Chipotle chillies are dried, smoked red jalapeňos. You can read more about chipotle paste and get the EASY homemade recipe here.
If you don’t fancy making your own, shop bought chipotle paste is fairly easy to come by these days. All the major supermarkets in the UK tend to sell it. They’re nothing like the real thing, but at a pinch😉, they will do.
If you speak Italian, you’ll get that pun. If not, read on, and you might!
Now, should you want to make our chipotle frittata with homemade chipotle paste, you should be able to get chipotle chillies online all year round, if you’re in the US or UK. Click here for my affiliate link to get it on Amazon, if you like.
Spizzico di Scamorza Affumicata
Scamorza is an Italian formaggio a pasta filata or stretched curd cheese, and extremely popular in Apulia and to a certain extent, Molise and Campania.
More common cheeses made by stretching and elasticising the curds are mozzarella and provolone.
Scamorza is basically like a dry mozzarella; stringy and chewy. It’s bland and fairly creamy, but, on the drier side, with a more piquant flavour than mozzarella. After the cheese is formed (from stretching), it is hung up in strings, about two thirds of the way up, and results in an almost pear shape, with the top being smaller, like it’s being strangled.
This explains its name, which comes from the Apulian word, scamozzare, which means to cut off.
There are two types of scamorza:
- scamorza bianca – this is just plain white, as described above
- scamorza affumicata, lightly smoked and has a light brown skin with a smoky, almost caramel like flavour.
Spizzico can mean anything like a pinch, to nibble or bits and pieces. So Spizzico di Scamorza Affumicata translates to “little bites of smoked scamorza”. See image below, that’s the cheese I’m using.
⇒ the pun connection is in this box.
Scamorza Substitute
Any smoked cheese will do, if you want to retain the smoky flavour. Otherwise, any cheese of your choice, it really doesn’t matter. These little smoked scamorza balls don’t really stretch, so don’t feel that you have to replace them with the stretchy mozzarella.
Marinated Vegetables
The marinated vegetables for our chipotle frittata can be any vegetables, and marinated with whatever oil. They are sometimes labelled as antipasti, as you can see in the image below. Or sometimes just called “chargrilled”. You can find them in jars as well as in tubs in the fridge aisle of your supermarket or at your local deli.
I love marinated vegetables, and have quite a few recipes on this site using them:
In this recipe, I’m using marinated courgettes (zucchini) and artichokes, for no particular reason! You can use any vegetables you like, whatever you have or fancy:
- eggplants
- olives
- tomatoes
- sundried tomatoes
- bell peppers (a particular favourite)
- chillies (chili peppers)
These are the courgettes I used in today’s spicy frittata:
What size frying pan to use
Anything between 20-25 cm (8″-10″), roughly. The smaller your pan, the longer your chipotle frittata will take to cook, as it will be thicker. This in turn means that it will have a darker bottom, given the longer cooking time. Like mine here, as I used an 8″ frying pan.
I shall leave this one completely up to you. It took me 15 minutes before the top of the frittata had firmed up. Had I used a 10″ pan, it would have taken about 10 minutes.
I think that about covers it all, don’t you? Shall we get our aprons on?
More Chipotle & Spicy Recipes
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Grazie!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Chipotle Frittata with Marinated Vegetables and Scamorza
Equipment
- a medium bowl
- whisk or fork for the eggs
- a frying pan (20-25cm/8"-10")
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 4 Tbsp chipotle paste
- 100 g marinated courgettes (zucchini) drained weight
- 100 g marinated artichokes drained weight
- 100 g spizzico di scamorza affumicata see post above for substitutes
- ¾ tsp salt (I found 1 was too salty and ½ not salty enough!)
- freshly ground black pepper for added depth
- 3 Tbsp EV olive oil
Instructions
Prep the Marinated Vegetables
- Drain and pat dry both vegetables with a kitchen paper.
- Chop up into little bite-sized piece, as in the image.
Prep the Egg Mix
- Break the eggs into a medium bowl and beat lightly.
- Lighten the chipotle paste with a little of the beaten egg, mix with a spoon. This is so the chipotle paste will mix easier into the eggs, with no stubborn lumps. Add the chipotle paste to the eggs and beat lightly to mix.
- Add the chopped up vegetables, the scamorza, salt and pepper and stir everything up to mix well.
Let's Cook the Frittata
- Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in your frying pan on medium heat (for size suggestions, read explanation in the post).
- Pour your egg mixture into the pan. Separate some of the filling if it's all collected together in one spot. But do not stir the eggs like we would a regular or Spanish omelette.
- Cover, lower the heat to to its lowest setting and cook for 10-15 minutes. If you are using a bigger frying pan (see post above), you should only need 10 minutes, as your frittata will be thinner.
- Check after 10 minutes. If your frittata is set on the top, and no longer runny, it's time to flip it. And this is such an easy thing to do, you'll be amazed.
- Place a plate on the frying pan. Hold the plate down onto the pan and just turn it over.
- At this point, your frittata will be on the plate. Don't worry if there's a small amount of raw egg "juice" on the plate.
- Take the pan off and place back on the cooker. Now wipe your pan with a kitchen paper and pour 1 Tbsp of oil and let it heat up. Shouldn't take more than 30 seconds.
- Slowly, slide the frittata back onto the frying pan to brown and crisp the other side. 2-3 minutes ought to do.
- That's it. You can serve it immediately while it's still hot, but it is just as delicious at room temperature, with some Aperol Spritz in the summer.
Now that is one omelette I cannot say no to. I too love them but lately stopped making them. Loading the veggies and cheese with chipotle! Heaven!
Thank you, Archana. My youngest loves his omelettes, so we make them very often!
Thanks for this, I’ve been making your chipotle paste going on 5 years now and haven’t changed a thing. I love it that much!
That’s so good to hear, Henry! Just published another one with chipotle paste that I’m sure you’ll love!
Awesome! Just came from the chipotle paste page. Love this man, I have to try and get the chillies or the paste.
Haha, good luck! Maybe the expat supermarkets might have the paste.