the frittata principle

You do cook greens with anchovies, garlic, and dried crushed chiles sometimes, don’t you?  Of course you do.

If you don’t, you should.  Braise the chopped greens in a large enough pan for a bit — water or broth — until they’re mostly cooked, then cook off nearly all the liquid.  Make a well in the middle of the greens by pushing them to the sides, pour in a little oil, add a couple of anchovy filets (they will basically dissolve if you poke them with a spoon, which is exactly what you want) and a liberal quantity of chopped garlic and a scattering of the chiles, cook it all in the oil until the garlic starts to get soft, then toss it all with the greens.  Eat as is or with a splash of vinegar.

And naturally, in the course of things, you  sometimes end up with some leftovers, don’t you?  Yeah, I know what you mean.  Pain in the ass, leftovers.  You gotta find a little container to put them in, you have to put them in the fridge, and then you have to remember to eat the damn things before they grow fur and tentacles.

Well, that’s not a problem here.  You know why?  Because of the Frittata Principle.  The Frittata Principle states that any savory leftover(s) present in small quantities in your refrigerator may be judiciously combined in a hot frying pan, heated through, and then smothered with beaten egg, which is then cooked until it is set throughout, to create a sumptuous eggy cake of wonderment in which no two bites are exactly the same.

So go ahead.  Put a little drizzle of olive oil in that nice hot cast iron frying pan.  Throw in your leftover greens.  Cook off any liquid you’ve got going on in there, and when the greens are no longer soggy, beat a couple-few eggs in a bowl (You know how many that is, right?  It’s the number that seems like it affords the right proportion of eggs and greens.) and then pour them over the greens.  The eggs won’t take too long to cook, but if you are in a rush or just really hungry you can take spatula-sized hunks of them as they start to set and flip them over so they cook all the way through a little faster.

Eggs and anchovies have a special affinity for one another, you’ll find.  And so do eggs and chiles, eggs and garlic, and eggs and greens. Basically it’s a match made in heaven, if heaven is a frying pan, which sometimes it is.

If you want to make it decadent, brush a slice or two of good crusty bread with a little olive oil and grill it so it’s nice and crunchy.  Put appropriately-sized chunks of eggs/greens on top.

Don’t share.  Unless you really, really want to.