Gluten Free Bacon and Tomato Frittata

As a part of my Foodbuzz 24x24 food event (more on that in a post later today) and my roommate Zak's birthday dinner, one of the recipes I decided to make was a Bacon and Tomato Frittata. Its a little time consuming if you make this on your own, but is a fun dish to prepare with friends and is relatively easy to make. Also, remove the bacon from the recipe for a great vegetarian meal.

Yields: 8 servings
Prep Time: 20 -30 minutes
Cook Time: 16 minutes

Ingredients
-8 eggs
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-1 small or 1/2 medium onion
-2 Portobello caps
-1/2 red bell pepper
-5 stalks asparagus
-4 slices bacon
-1/4 lb cherry tomatoes
-salt and pepper
-2 cloves garlic
-1 tbsp white wine
-zest of one lemon

Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. On a medium pan or griddle, cook the bacon over medium heat. The picture below shows the bacon when it is done on one side and is ready to flip. This should take about 3-4 minutes on each side. Once the bacon is crisp, remove from pan onto a plate lined with paper towels. Dab the bacon to remove the fat, and dice into pieces.

3. Prepare your mise en place of vegetables (i.e. prep your vegetables before cooking so that you can concentrate on items that are over heat to prevent overcooking or burning). Dice the onions, pepper, mushrooms, mince the garlic, and slice the tomatoes in half.
4. In a saucepan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and heat to medium/medium low. Once the pan is hot, add the garlic and onions. Keep them moving to prevent burning, and cook until the onions are translucent. Below is a before and after picture.

Before

After becoming translucent

5. Remove the onions, and add the wine and mushrooms to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms have begun to shrink and sweat liquid.
6. While the mushrooms cook, grill the asparagus for about 5-6 minutes over medium heat, until the asparagus begins to have char marks, and has a nice, vivid green color to them. Remove from heat and submerge into ice cold water. This will halt the cooking process so that the asparagus maintains its color and does not become mushy. Dice into quarters.

7. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and cream. Add a dash of salt and pepper.
8. Preheat a 10 or 12 inch oven-safe omelet pan over medium heat, and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, and do not stir the mix. Start a timer for 4 minutes. Sprinkle the vegetables, bacon, and tomatoes over top the eggs. After 4 minutes, use a spatula to gently separate the edges of the frittata from the pan, and place into the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the eggs are slightly golden brown and set in the middle. Make sure to have an oven mitt on your hand when removing the pan from the oven, or else you will burn yourself. 


Helpful tip: Once the frittata is done, slip an oven mitt over top the handle. This is so that if anyone forgets to put on a mitt before touching the handle, their hand will burn.