| The New Portuguese Table | Clarkson Potter, 2009 | Serves 4 as a main or 6 as a starter
Vovó Costa used to serve this to my cousins Barry and Wayne ad me right from her big cast-iron skillet for lunch or, if we were lucky, for a late supper on Sunday evenings, if we were allowed to stay up and watch TV. It’s terrific served warm as a main course, at room temperature as a starter, or chilled and sliced into thin wedges as an hors d’oeuvre.–David Leite
Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes.
Portuguese Sausage Frittata Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound Portuguese chouriço, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 pound waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch slices
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers
- 7 large eggs
- Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
Directions
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1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the chouriço and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a large bowl. Turn the heat to medium-low and drop the onions and potatoes into the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and the potatoes are fork-tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes more. Transfer the onions and potatoes and garlic, along with the peppers, to the bowl with the chourico. Set the skillet aside off the heat.
3. Heat the broiler. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl until fluffy and season with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour the eggs over the chouriço-potato mixture in the bowl and gently combine.
4. Wipe out the skillet, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, and warm it over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture. Using a rubber spatula, quickly stir to cook the eggs briefly, then jiggle the skillet to settle its contents. Run the spatula around the sides of the skillet to prevent the tortilha from sticking. Crank up the heat to medium-high and cook until the edges are set, 3 to 4 minutes.Slide the skillet under the broiler and cook until the top is nicely browned and no puddles remain, 1 to 2 minutes. Slide the tortilha onto a large platter and sprinkle with the parsley, or slice it and serve it right from the pan, just as my grandmother did.
- Onion Frittata from Mele Cotte
- Caprese Frittata with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella & Basil from Cookin Canuck
- Chilaquiles from Leite’s Culinaria
- Pepperoni Spinach Frittata Text from Leite’s Culinaria
Portuguese sausage frittata recipe © 2003 David Leite. Photograph © 2009 Nuno Correia. All rights reserved
LC
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The recipe is delicious. I was just wondering why it is called Sausage Tortilla in your book since “tortilla” is Spanish.
Thanks, Cherie. Coming from you that means a lot. If you look in the book, you’ll see the Portuguese title is tortilha de chouriço. The closest English translation would be tortilla. We could have used frittata but that would have skewed it too Italian. So my copy editor in Lisbon, as well as my copy editor in New York, felt tortilla would be the best English word.