Potato Frittata is fluffy, delicate and brimming with classic Italian flavors: layers of tender, sliced potato, prosciutto, parmesan cheese and earthy fresh rosemary. It's delicious at any temperature, hot, warm, or cold and welcome for any meal of the day. Serve with a green salad for a light lunch or dinner or with with fresh fruit for breakfast or brunch.
Until the 1950s, frittata was mostly seen as nothing more than a humble omelet outside of Italy, but the world has taken note of how much the dish has to offer. It’s more than worthy of having its own name, method, and recipe.
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Ingredients You Need to Make Potato Frittata
- Yukon Gold Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes or other waxy potato
- Shallots: or sweet onion
- Olive Oil: ideally extra virgin olive oil
- Eggs: large or extra large
- Milk: or half and half for a richer frittata
- Fresh Rosemary or Fresh Thyme: or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- Parmesan Cheese: or Pecorino Romano cheese
- Prosciutto: or bacon or pancetta or skip the meat for a vegetarian option
- Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
FAQ
Italian, the word frittata is a derivative of friggere and loosely translates as 'fried'. It began as a general term for eggs cooked in a skillet in any number of ways.
Though a frittata is similar to an omelet (also spelled omelette) as a list of ingredients, the difference comes in how they're cooked. With a frittata, you combine the filling ingredients with raw, beaten eggs rather than spreading them over mostly cooked egg. And instead of folding the egg mixture over the filling at the end, as you would an omelet, a frittata is not folded. The filling is dispersed with the raw egg and they cook together, more like a crustless quiche and flipped whole on the stovetop or, my preference, finished in the oven.
Frittatas are cooked slower and at a lower temperature than an omelette. And for frittatas the eggs are beaten until frothy to incorporate more air to create a fluffier, thicker final dish that can hold more filling.
Recipe Options
There are endless options for frittata fillings, the key is to swap in similar amounts of related ingredients. For example:
- Instead of Parmesan cheese, use Pecorino Romano cheese or a good melting cheese like Monterey jack, mild or sharp cheddar cheese, or mozzarella. Or branch out to other Italian cheeses like Taleggio or Fontina.
- Swap in thin slices or cubes of cooked sweet potato, butter sautéed mushrooms or leftover cooked vegetables for the potatoes.
- Use thinly sliced yellow onion or sweet onion or chopped green onions for the shallot in this recipe. Caramelized onions would also be an excellent substitution.
- Instead of prosciutto, add pancetta, bacon or sweet or hot Italian sausage.
- Add in a handful of baby spinach or arugula (don't go overboard though as you could end up with a watery frittata).
Cooking Tips
- Keep in mind that you'll need to cook whatever fillings you choose before adding them to the egg mixture (except for cheese and meats that don't require cooking, like prosciutto).
- Be sure to use an oven safe skillet. Once you add the raw egg to the cooked filling ingredients on the stovetop, you'll transfer the skillet to the oven for the majority of the cooking time. Some versions of frittata spend more time (or cook completely) on the stovetop. With this recipe, you're already using the oven to evenly cook the potatoes and shallots, so it makes sense to finish the frittata there as well. As a bonus, you'll avoid the mess of flipping it and spend less time at the stove.
A Note about Cooking Temperature
Some recipes recommend baking frittata at a temperature of 400˚F (or higher), but in my experience, this is too high. Slower cooking results in a more tender texture; 350˚F is ideal.
More Great Frittata Recipes
Make it Brunch with These Additions
How to Make Potato Frittata
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange potato slices and shallot rings in a thin, slightly overlapping layer; drizzle with olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet in an oven preheated to 400˚F. Remove from oven and set aside; reduce oven temperature to 350˚F.
Whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper, rosemary and parmesan cheese together in a medium bowl; stir in chopped prosciutto and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat, swirling to coat. Add potato and shallot mixture in an even layer over the bottom and pour over egg mixture. Transfer skillet to oven and bake 30-35 minutes, until the frittata has puffed and set in the center. Remove from oven to cool for 10 minutes before slicing into wedges to serve.
Potato Frittata
Ingredients
- 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes (or other waxy potato) thinly sliced
- 2 shallots thinly sliced and separated into rounds
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 12 large eggs
- ½ cup milk or half and half for a richer frittata
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt plus more for seasoning potatoes
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more for seasoning potatoes
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary or fresh thyme, or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange potato slices in a thin, slightly overlapping layer and scatter shallot rings over the top in an even layer. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350˚F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper, rosemary and parmesan cheese until well combined; stir in chopped prosciutto; set aside.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 10" cast iron skillet over medium heat and swirl to coat. Layer potato and shallot mixture over the bottom; pour egg mixture over all. Transfer to oven and bake 30-35 minutes, or until the frittata has puffed and the center is set.
- Let cool 10 minutes before slicing in to wedges. Serve.
I love a good frittata, and the addition of prosciutto in this one makes it all the better! I'm thinking these would make an easy lunch option as the slices probably reheat easily. Yum!!
They definitely do, David!
Marissa, you've got a seriously delicious fritters here. Loving all the flavours going on, particularly prosciutto and rosemary.
Thanks so much, Ben!
Tom and I enjoy frittatas for breakfast lunch and/or dinner Marissa. I'll need to add this recipe to our menu over the holidays. Love the list of ingredients!
Thank you, Mary Ann! I hope it will be a big hit with you and your husband!
Anything with Prosciutto and Parmesan has got to be delicious!
So true, Angie!