Fresh Herb Frittata from The Nourished Kitchen

It's a virtual dinner party! If you're just joining us, this is the second of eight sumptuous courses as we eat, drink, and celebrate our way through the new cookbook that's due to hit bookshelves everywhere next Tuesday – The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle.
(See the other courses and hosts.)

Welcome to the dinner party!

Come in, grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and stay awhile. You can smell our Fresh Herb Frittata warming in the oven, so until we're ready to serve, make yourself comfortable, relax, and consider yourself warmly welcomed. There is nothing I enjoy more than gathering people around my kitchen table to eat, talk, and just be together.

Six years ago, as my husband and I started our real food journey, we felt overwhelmed. Healthy food was not an unfamiliar topic, as we had both grown up in families that cooked from scratch and in our newlywed days, I cooked delicious meals mostly from scratch every night, but yet we still felt disconnected and uninspired. We knew we wanted to eat better and have more control over our food, but we weren't sure how.

It was then that I ran across a traditional foods website called Nourished Kitchen, headed up by a woman named Jenny. She wrote passionately and eloquently about long-forgotten foods, such as lard, and published gorgeous-sounding recipes to highlight seasonal and nutrient-dense ingredients. I read voraciously, and as I returned to the site regularly, I felt as though a light had gone on inside me. I suddenly had words to explain why we wanted to eat seasonally and why I felt better when my diet had plenty of traditional fats. Our food choices suddenly had deep meaning and – dare I say – JOY in them and we reveled in discovering the hidden sources of grass-fed meats, raw dairy, and fresh produce in our area.

Several years have gone by since those early days of our family's journey, obviously, and I myself now spend my time writing about traditional foods and ways to infuse life with intentionality and joy. I still continue to visit Jenny's site regularly, and yet, when my copy of Jenny's new cookbook, The Nourished Kitchen, arrived in my mailbox earlier this week and I stood reading it (and drooling over all 160 recipes!), I was transported back to the eager anticipation and exuberance of those early days in our journey.

Just by turning page after page, reading Jenny's passionate, intelligent voice describing how to cook grass-fed meats and why store-bought, conventional eggs need to be refrigerated, I felt a renewed sense of excitement and knew I held a unique treasure in my hands.  This book truly is a thorough, deeply-inspiring resource and will stand as a rightful beacon in the local food movement for years to come, as well as provides ample recipes to find new nourishing favorites for your family. My copy is already significantly post-it-noted to mark recipes for this week's menu plan! I can only imagine what a gift this book will be to so many who long to feel healthy again or who want to discover where their food comes from. (Or to anyone who revels in the words “Farm-to-Table,” for that matter!)

The thing is – Jenny's recipes not only nourish the body, but they capture the mind and inspire the soul. Here is a resource that will inspire and equip anyone to think, to celebrate – and most of all, to cook, and to cook well. This book truly does belong in every kitchen to teach and inspire everyone, from the serious home chef to the weary mom wanting to get the best on the table for her family.

As Joel Salatin says about the book, “Jennifer McGruther's road map to culinary integrity delivers us from wandering through the bewilderment of industrial, nutrient-deficient, supermarket detours. The Nourished Kitchen is as essential in the modern kitchen as a slow cooker and electric mixer.” I couldn't agree more whole-heartedly.

With all of that, I think it's about time to serve the frittata. Let me tell you, the spring herbs – fresh from my husband's garden, oh, I swoon – smell delicious!

And while you nosh and print the recipe, I'll let you in on all the secrets about the extra goodies that are up for grabs if you pre-order The Nourished Kitchen THIS WEEK (sorry, the promotion is over – the book is now is stores everywhere! Wahoo!). And let me know in the comments what you think of the frittata!

UPDATE: This dish has become a staple in our house! We make it for dinner at least twice a week – yes, it's that well loved. It's also incredibly simple and frugal, which is definitely appreciated these days. The only change we make is that for our family of five, we use 15 eggs instead of 9 and up the other ingredients accordingly. It usually adds about 10 minutes to the in-the-oven cook time.

Print Recipe

Fresh Herb Frittata

Reprinted with permission from The Nourished Kitchen by Jennifer McGruther, (c) 2014. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Publisher retains all copyrights and the right to require immediate removal of this excerpt for copyright or other business reasons.

Ingredients

• 9 eggs
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chervil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425°F.
• Break open the eggs into a large mixing bowl, pour in the cream, and beat them together until loosely combined. Whisk in the herbs.
• Melt the butter in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat; when it froths, pour in the eggs. Let the eggs cook, undisturbed, for 5 minutes, or until the bottom is cooked through but the top is still liquid.
• Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 5 minutes, until the eggs have set. Invert the frittata onto a plate or leave it in the pan, cut it into wedges, and serve.

 With that, let me get your hats and coats and wish you all a fond farewell. Your next course is From the Range – I wonder whether you'll be served Home Cured Bacon with Fenugreek, Mustard Seed, and Maple Sugar, or perhaps a creamy Bone Marrow Custard with Black Pepper and Parsley? It will be up to the host, so I'll be in line with you to enjoy the next course!