Kids Make 12-Egg Frittata

Last week we made deviled eggs in my "food appreciation" classes. As part of that exercise, I wanted the kids to get the feel of an egg--literally. We broke eggs into individual bowls and all the kids had a chance to pick it up with their hands, feel the difference between the yolk and the white, and let the whites slither through their fingers.

They loved the touchy-feely component of that lesson and it resulted in a lot of separated eggs. What to do with them? Some kids suggested muffins. There were votes for a cake. Another thought scrambled eggs would be a good use.

Well, we had enough eggs for a couple hundred muffins, and many, many cakes. The simplest solution, it seemed to me, was a frittata. So I brought my big, non-stick skillet to class this week along with a variety of components. The class divided into teams, each responsible for one component.

There was a broccoli team, responsible for dividing a head of broccoli into small florets. There was a Parmesan team, responsible for grating cheese. There was a roasted red pepper team, responsible for getting the peppers out of a jar and placing them on the frittata in a decorative fashion.

Meanwhile, I sauteed some sliced red onion very aggressively on the stove top. Setting that aside, I got the skillet good and hot and showed the kids what happened when I ladled some of our beaten egg mixture into the smoking skillet. Of course it sizzled and bubbled and began to brown around the edges. We added more egg, and I demonstrated how to use a heat-proof spatula to lift the cooked egg around the edges and tilt the skillet, so that the egg liquid would find a new place to cook.

We cooked the broccoli and the kids took turns adding that, the onion, the roasted red pepper and finally the cheese to our frittata. Then under the broiler it went to puff up and brown.

"Now, how do I get it out of the pan?" I asked the class.

I took bets on my getting the frittata out of the pan and onto a cutting board intact. Of course I won. The frittata slid right out, right on cue. We practiced some simple fractions, slicing the frittata into wedges. Then the kids wolfed it down.

Never has an egg--or a broccoli floret--been so popular.