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(Pictured above: Tuna, Asparagus and Parmesan Frittata)

Eggs…they’re not just for breakfast anymore! I’m one of those people who can gladly eat eggs at any meal—one of my favorite no-brainer suppers is an omelet with a quick salad or vegetable dish on the side.

A frittata is like an Italian version of an omelet—however, the ingredients are mixed into the egg, rather than folded into the center as a filling. Traditionally, frittatas are cooked first in a pan on the stovetop, then popped under the broiler for a few minutes to brown. At the end of a long work day though, I like to keep things easy—I just bake my frittata in the oven and cook everything in one simple step.

You can pretty much throw anything into a frittata, and they are a great way to use up leftover vegetables or whatever items you have rattling around your refrigerator or pantry. I like using vegetables, since I always seem to have a few stray ones in the fridge. My boyfriend’s Italian mother often added sausage to hers. Canned tuna, cooked potatoes, shredded prosciutto and leftover pasta are also tasty filling ingredients. Basically, it’s all up to you and your imagination (or the contents of your refrigerator).

Here are a couple of simple frittata ideas to try. Hope you enjoy them!

(Each recipe makes 6-8 servings.)

Tuna, Asparagus and Parmesan Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 small (3 oz) can tuna, flaked and drained (I like a good quality Italian tuna)
• 8 cooked asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• Olive oil for the baking dish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Lightly oil an 8-inch baking dish (round or square, it doesn’t matter) with olive oil. Beat the eggs, milk and salt in a large bowl. Stir in tuna, asparagus pieces, and shredded parmesan. Pour into oiled baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes or until set. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.

Tomato, Basil and Asiago Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 cup fresh tomato, chopped and with seeds removed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (about 10-12 leaves)
• 1/4 cup shredded asiago cheese
• Olive oil for the baking dish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Lightly oil an 8-inch baking dish with olive oil. Beat the eggs, milk and sea salt in a large bowl, then stir in chopped tomato, chopped basil and shredded asiago. Pour into oiled baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.

(Note: Frittatas don’t have to be served hot…they are often enjoyed warm or at room temperature, so they are also perfect to take to lunch the next day!)

I live in New Zealand now, but I’m still a very proud Australian — and I think about home often (sob, sob). But thanks to the Internet, I never feel too far from home. Not only can I easily communicate with my family through email, the Web also enables me to read my favorite Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, every day.

Like many newspapers published online, SMH includes a selection of blogs based on all sorts of topics ranging from politics to sports.

One blog I really enjoy reading is called Chew On This by award winning health writer Paula Goodyer, who writes very insightful posts about food and nutrition.

Recently she wrote a post called “Ten healthy habits from the Mediterranean” where she spoke with Dr Antigone Kouris, a Melbourne based dietitian and nutrition research fellow with Monash University, who is from a Greek family.

Dr Kouris gave some very helpful tips on how to follow a traditional Mediterranean way of eating, which I’ll quickly summarize:

• Eat legumes (beans, peas, and lentils)
• Eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, rocket, endive and chicory
• Eat a range of colored vegetables including tomatoes and capsicum
• Use extra virgin olive oil
• Include some foods like yogurt and feta cheese
• Eat fish and seafood
• Be generous with herbs like oregano, rosemary, dill and mint
• Snack on nuts and seeds

Then Paula finished the post by asking her readers: “Do you find it easy to include healthy Mediterranean style dishes in a busy week? Tell us how.”

For someone like me who’s super passionate about Mediterranean food and cooking, it was too irresistible a question not to answer. So even though it was quite late at night, I wrote down a list off the top of my head of all the sorts of Mediterranean meals I eat regularly. Many of these recipes Ric and I have posted on our site, MediterrAsian.com over the last four years, so I included a link. Then I went to bed.

The next day I checked the Chew On This blog, and saw that Paula had been kind enough to leave a note on my comment saying “Thanks — it’s a good site.” I don’t know whether it was this endorsement, or the list of Mediterranean meal ideas I described in my comment, but over the next few days more than a thousand people visited our site from Paula’s blog according to our server logs.

Anyway, if you’re looking for ways to include more Mediterranean foods in your own daily diet, I thought this list of meal ideas would also be of interest to you. So here it is (and I’ve linked to the recipe if we have it on our site):

Pasta served with tomato-based sauces like puttanesca (made with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anchovies and olives) or pomodoro (made with tomatoes and fresh basil), or with herb-based sauces like pesto and salsa verde.

Risotto made with salmon, tuna, prawns, scallops, chicken or beans.

Tagine (Moroccan stew) served over couscous.

Paella made with any combination of seafood, chicken, beans, and vegetables.

Ratatouille (a vegetable stew made with tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant and zucchini that goes wonderfully served on the side of grilled or baked fish, chicken or shellfish).

Tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelette made with eggs, potatoes and onions).

Chicken or falafel kebab stuffed with tabbouleh salad.

Spanakopita (Greek spinach and feta pie).

Baked fish flavored with chermoula (a Moroccan herb sauce) and served with vegetables and rice or couscous.

Lavash wraps stuffed with hummus, diced tomato and cucumber, grated carrot, shredded cos lettuce, and sliced red onion.

Hearty salads like salade Niçoise and horiatiki (better known as Greek salad) served with some crusty bread on the side.

Bruschetta topped with grilled or roasted vegetables (like tomatoes and peppers) and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

Toasted baguette slices spread with tapenade (Provençal olive, garlic and caper spread).

Toasted pita bread, cut into wedges and served with hummus for dipping.

If you find that spinach and ricotta are two ingredients I used together recently, then you are right. Anna is still away and in the meantime, I’m still more economic with the time I spend in kitchen, so I’ve been improving my ability to make gourmet dishes quickly and for a single person.

Since more often than not I have the versatile spinach and ricotta pate in the refrigerator, here is a dish I came up with this week: a delicious spinach and ricotta lasagna with bechamel sauce and topped with cheese.

Ingredients

• Sheets of pasta for lasagna
• The Versatile spinach and ricotta pâté
• 300ml (7 floz) of milk
• 100g (3.5oz) of grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• A hint of nutmeg

Directions for the bechamel sauce

• Dissolve the flour in the cold milk
• Add the nutmeg
• Cook over a low heat, mixing gently until it starts to thicken
• Remove from heat immediately

Directions for the lasagna

There isn’t really a rule of how many layers of lasagna or how much filling you should have, but I used 7 layers of lasagna and used a layer of filling of about 3mm (0.1in), but feel free to choose your own measurements.

• Spread a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of the tray
• Spread the Spinach and Ricotta pâté on a layer of lasagna
• Position the layer on the tray, over the sauce
• Add a thin layer of the bechamel sauce
• Repeat the process until you’re done with the layers
• Cover generously with the sauce and make sure also the sides are covered
• Spread the grated cheese over the top and cook in a preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) for about 25 minutes

Now, the final secret. Lasagna cooks much better in a baking dish made of terracotta or other material that allows a slow cooking than a metal one.

If you’ve ever checked out the salads page on our website, you’ll have a fair idea that Trudy and I are both BIG salad lovers.

We enjoy eating lighter leafier salads as a side dish, but we also love more substantial, heartier salads — the kind that stick to your ribs. And no other salad has quite the rib-stickability of potato salad.

This Greek-inspired potato salad is quite different from the usual potato salad. The potatoes are roasted with thick slices of lemon which impart the most wonderful lemony flavor deep into the potato flesh.

Also, there’s a special ingredient in this potato salad that not only imparts extra flavor, but adds creaminess without adding virtually any calories. All we do is roast some unpeeled garlic cloves along with the potatoes. The roasting process gives the garlic a milder sweeter flavor, and it also turns it into a creamy puree which we squeeze out of the cloves and fold through the mayo before adding to the salad.

Lemon-Rosemary Infused Potato Salad with Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise

Serves 4 as a side dish

• 2 lbs. (1kg) potatoes — peeled and cut into large chunks
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive
• 8 cloves garlic — left unpeeled
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 lemons — thickly sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise

PREHEAT the oven to 210°C (425°F). TOSS the potatoes in a baking dish with the oil, garlic, rosemary, lemon and salt and bake for around 50 minutes tossing halfway through cooking. REMOVE from the oven and remove the lemon and garlic. SQUEEZE the roast garlic puree from the skins and mix into the mayonnaise until well combined. ADD the garlic-mayo to the baking dish with the roast potatoes and mix well to combine with the baking juices. SERVE warm or at room temperature.

With the recent Easter holiday, many of us now have extra hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator, and making deviled eggs is a great way to use them up. I always think of deviled eggs as a “festive” food, as I associate them with parties, picnics, good times and good friends. My dear friend Stef (who is a good egg) makes a fabulous deviled egg for cocktail parties with pals. But who needs to wait for a party to make deviled eggs? They are fun to make and eat any time.

Food historians say that the deviled egg dates back to early Roman times, when boiled eggs were served with spices poured on top. Classic American deviled eggs are made with a little mayonnaise blended with spicy ingredients such as mustard, cayenne pepper or paprika. (That’s where the “devil” comes from.) However, the name has long been used to describe any sort of stuffed egg, which doesn’t necessarily have to be spicy.

As an alternative to the classic version, I’ve replaced the mayonnaise with Greek yogurt and silken tofu for Mediterranean and Asian inspired deviled eggs. Both ingredients work wonderfully to add moisture and texture to the egg filling, and are a nice change from the traditional recipe.

Greek Inspired Deviled Eggs

(Makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 hard boiled eggs
• 2 tablespoons Greek style yogurt (I like Fage)
• 1 tablespoon crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped black olives
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions:

Peel hard boiled eggs and slice lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks and place in a bowl. Using a fork, mash yolks with the yogurt and mix well. Mix in the feta cheese, chopped olives, and fresh thyme leaves. Spoon mixture into each egg cavity. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve—they taste even better after the flavors have set in the fridge for a while.

Japanese Inspired Deviled Eggs

(Makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 hard boiled eggs
• 2 tablespoons silken tofu
• 1/4 teaspoon miso paste
• 1/4 teaspoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon chopped scallions
• 1 tablespoon shredded crabmeat
• 1 tablespoon chopped re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms
• A pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Peel hard boiled eggs and slice lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks and place in a bowl, then mash yolks with the tofu, miso paste and mirin. Mix in the chopped scallions, shredded crabmeat, and shiitake mushrooms. Season to taste with sea salt. Spoon mixture into each egg cavity. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

I don’t know about you, but to me cooking has always had a social factor.

When I cook for people here in Italy I can spend hours in the kitchen doing things as complex as they can be. I can actually go through all the Italian courses — Primo piatto, secondo piatto, contorno, dolce, and I can bake my own bread to go along with it. But when I cook only for myself I tend to be more economic with the time I spend in kitchen. But, hey, I never meant to say I lower my food standards in any measure!

Since Anna is away and I’m by myself this week, in this post I’ll share a recipe that won’t take more than 10 minutes of your time and requires no skills at all, yet is the kind of food you find in fancy restaurants, and often at unjustified prices.

Got ten minutes to prepare today’s lunch? Let’s go then!

Penne Rigate alla Ricotta e Noci

The first thing to do, of course, is give the dish a fancy Italian name, like they do in restaurants. Penne Rigate alla Ricotta e Noci — so there you go. Penne are those small pipes of pasta and rigate means they are ridged on the surface.

This was my pasta of choice because I wanted the ricotta to be able to fill the penne and because of the rough surface it will adhere better on the outside as well, but you can use other varieties of penne, or fusili. Basically any short pasta.

Ingredients

• 200g (7 oz) of penne rigate, or your pasta of choice
• 150g (5 oz) of ricotta
• 30g (1 oz) of chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions

• Cook the pasta in lightly salted water according to instructions on the package
• When the penne are done, drain, and immediately put them back in the same empty pan
• Add the ricotta and the olive oil and mix them gently
• Add the walnuts
• Optionally, if you like a stronger taste, you can add a some strong cheese, like a small piece of gorgonzola or ground pecorino or parmesan.

This recipe serves two, but another great thing is that just as simply you can cook for yourself alone or you can cook for a dozen — you will only need a bigger pan.