Caprese Frittata: Oven Omelet with Mozzarella, Basil and Tomatoes

Name: Caprese Frittata: Oven Omelet with Mozzarella and Tomatoes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Eggs 6; Cherry tomatoes 8-10; Mozzarella 100 g; Fresh basil 2-3 sprigs; Butter 20 g; Ground black pepper, salt to taste

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40 mins

Although the word omelet was coined by the French, dishes made in a similar way are known almost everywhere in the world. For example, the Italians have an almost identical dish called frittata. Though, if you get into the finer points, a frittata is most often baked: an omelet with cheese and tomatoes in the oven. The classic omelet is probably one of the simplest dishes there is.

French omelet is made without milk, flour or any other additions. What’s more, a French omelet is made thin and folded like an envelope or rolled up before serving. I read somewhere that for French chefs the ability to make a plain omelet is almost the start of a career, the first step, so to speak. An omelet is made with the best butter, fried fairly quickly in a very hot pan. Before serving and folding, the omelet is sometimes varied with fillings.

I won’t argue that for us the best omelet filling is fried cracklings with onion. Still, a very tasty omelet with tomatoes, or a fluffy omelet with mushrooms, cheese and herbs, usually gets eaten instantly and with no questions asked. When making an omelet, don’t add to the eggs anything that contains liquid: milk, cream, very ripe tomatoes. The Italians even remove the seeds from tomatoes before cooking and give them time to drain the excess liquid. Only then do they mix everything with lightly beaten eggs to make a frittata.

Most often, tomatoes and cheese go into a traditional omelet as the filling. If you can, small cherry tomatoes are best for a fluffy oven omelet. Cherry tomatoes are usually sold in small clusters on the vine and are rarely overripe, which means they won’t release much liquid into the omelet. In principle, you can use large tomatoes too, peeling and seeding them first. For all the variety of cheeses, in my taste mozzarella suits an omelet best, an excellent young Italian cheese. Mozzarella melts beautifully at cooking temperatures and is perfect for omelets as well as for pizza. One of our favorite homemade salads is Caprese, a wonderful combination of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. Mozzarella with tomatoes is delicious on its own; it is a remarkable pairing in general.

An easy, tasty oven omelet with cheese and tomatoes is a good option for a hearty breakfast, considering that your own part in the cooking is only this: turn on the oven, slice the tomatoes and mozzarella, and beat the eggs with a fork.

More with eggs and tomatoes

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Ingredients

1-2 servings

Eggs 6
Cherry tomatoes 8-10
Mozzarella 100 g
Fresh basil 2-3 sprigs
Butter 20 g
Ground black pepper, salt to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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The egg mixture

Needless to say, the ingredients must be perfectly fresh. This applies mostly to the eggs and the mozzarella. Fresh eggs used to be called “dietary” eggs, meaning a sell-by period of no more than 7 days. That is what will suit you if there is no ubiquitous, brazen, clucking “flock” running around your yard laying the freshest eggs with a sell-by date of “just laid.” By the way, a “table” egg has a sell-by period of up to 25 days, for your information.
Prepare the eggs. Fresh eggs are probably worth washing in ordinary warm water before cooking, then wiping dry. Carefully crack the shell with a knife or on the edge of the bowl and let the eggs fall into a deep bowl. Small bits of shell often get into the bowl; pick them out.
Lightly salt and pepper the eggs and mix them with an ordinary table fork until smooth. You don’t need to whisk, just mix the omelet mixture well.

Assembling in the dish

Turn on the oven and let it heat to 190°C.
Grease a deep-sided baking dish on the inside with a piece of butter, thoroughly, so that the whole inner surface is coated. Pour the egg mixture into the dish.
Arrange the mozzarella. Set aside 4-5 balls of mozzarella and 3-4 cherry tomatoes right away to decorate the omelet before serving. Take the remaining, freshest balls out of the liquid. If the balls are the size of a cherry, you can use them whole. If the balls are large, cut them in half. Mozzarella is often sold as fairly large balls, the size of a chicken egg or bigger. In that case, slice the mozzarella into slices 1-1.5 cm thick. Arrange the mozzarella pieces in the dish with the egg mixture, pressing them right down into the liquid.
Cut the remaining cherry tomatoes in half and arrange them in the dish too. That is really all the preparation; the omelet can go into the oven.

Baking

The exact oven temperature isn’t particularly important. It can be anywhere from 170 to 210°C. Too low a temperature means longer cooking; a higher one cooks faster, but there is a risk of burning. It has no effect on the omelet collapsing.
Put the dish on the middle rack of the oven and bake until the egg mixture is completely set. You judge this by eye: there should be no liquid egg left in the middle. Taking into account the time the dish needs to heat up, at 190°C my omelet took 30 minutes.

Serving

Transfer the omelet to a large plate. A cooked omelet separates from the dish beautifully and doesn’t stick at all.
Arrange the basil leaves, the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and the mozzarella balls you set aside for decoration over the omelet.
Serve the omelet hot.

Calories and macros

900 kcal

Serving ≈ 480 g

Protein62 g28% of kcal
Fat67 g68% of kcal
Carbs8 g4% of kcal

100 g188 kcalProtein 12.9 gFat 14 gCarbs 1.8 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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