Lasagna-stuffed spaghetti squash: a fun alternative

If you're looking for a way to take something totally unhealthy and turn it into something only mildly unhealthy, then look no further! This recipe converts the standard lasagna into one that uses spaghetti squash, a fun winter squash that pulls apart into threads (not unlike spaghetti) once sufficiently cooked. It may leave you wanting a bit, given the lower calorie count, but at least you won't hate yourself as much later that night. Plus, it's incredibly fun to eat.

Baby Kale Salad with Roasted Squash

This recipe is from the delicious New York City restaurant, Northern Spy.  I ate there a few years ago, and happened to notice that this random kale salad recipe pilfered from the internet was one of theirs. The salad did not disappoint, and made me miss spending time sampling the dishes of the excellent farm-to-table chefs in New York.  Crispy, crunchy, with a healthy dose of nuttiness from the roasted squash and toasted almonds, and tangy from the aged cheeses, this complex, filling salad was a huge hit at the dinner table, and could have held its own against the best made caesars or any of the roasted beet with goat cheese permutations.

I recommend you seek out baby kale for this salad, but if you can't find that try for one of the nicer kales mentioned in the recipe.  In a pinch, use regular kale, but blanch it for 60 seconds and then shock it in ice water to make it more palatable and bright.

Pasta alla Norma

Many years ago I traveled with my family to our homeland of Sicily to see where the family was from.  We toured around the island, tracking down birth certificates and marriage licenses.  It was an amazing trip, punctuated with unforgettable meals.

Sicilian food isn't the same heavy cuisine as the northern parts of the country; instead, the food of the island represents a melting pot of influences and a culture that has thrived on meager existences.  This classical dish, pasta alla norma, took us by surprise at how much flavor was packed into such few ingredients, cooked just barely enough to bring out the essence of each one.  I think that this dish could represent the humble beginnings of tomato use in Italy, coming over from the Americas and passed by the Spaniards to the Italian islanders.  In the beginning, tomatoes were often barely cooked rather than being pureed into sauces, and were often tossed with some form of grain and maybe a couple of other vegetables.  So this dish is essentially a trip backwards in time through the history of the Italy's "golden apple".

I present a very classical recipe, not unlike ones I found by Mark Bittman and Mario Batali.  You can plate this however you like, but I relish the crudeness of the ingredients and prefer to serve this as large bites of everything, an homage to the basic vegetables that would go on to form the much more eloquent language of an entire cuisine over the centuries.

Savory Rosemary Gruyere Bread Pudding

Back when the Food Channel still had cooking shows, I remember watching an episode of Emeril Live where he made savory cheesecakes.  And I thought, "we need to tell the Cheesecake Factory, they're sitting on a gold mine".  While I have still never seen one in person, I started questioning all of my dessert beliefs: can I eat this earlier in the meal, before I hate myself?  Can't I find a way to avoid a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar and still have a delicious baked good?  And, most importantly, can I find a way to put more bacon in this?

And now, you can.  As I was staring down about $5 of unused, questionable rosemary bread from the farmer's market, The idea struck me like a stale loaf of bread to the dome.  This was not to be another farmer's market total loss.  So I sliced the bread up into large cubes in anticipation of my further pleasure.

What ensued was, quite possibly, one of the most delicious things I have ever made.  Crispy, rich, smoky, and with that pine forest smell from the rosemary both baked into the bread and freshly added to the dish, you could easily get lost in this "pudding", which I would describe as either the best stuffing you've ever had, or a meal that combines the best of breakfast, dinner, and dessert.

I will confess that I lifted a few components of this recipe from a fellow blogger here, but then went and updated with a better process and a few ingredients, not the least of which is bacon.  I highly recommend you do two things - use stale bread (slice it up one day before it's too hard to slice, then cube it and leave it in a bowl to dry), and let the custard mixture soak into the bread for at least 8 hours.


Rosemary-Gruyere Bread Pudding

• 5 cups of cubed, stale Rosemary or French bread, crusts removed
• 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for greasing pan
• 3/4 cup chopped sweet yellow onion such as Vidalia
• 1/4 cup of chopped shallots, or 1 large
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, about 2 cloves
• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 healthy pinch of black pepper
• 2 thick-cut slices bacon, preferably applewood smoked
• 1.5 cups of milk (I used 2%)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 4 eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 cup of coarsely grated Gruyere cheese, separated in half

A few days to a few hours before, cube the bread into 1" cubes and place in a bowl to dry.  Toast bread cubes just before using to remove remaining moisture and brown slightly, and place in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs and add in milk and cream.

Toasted bread cubes, next to the egg custard soak.  Treat this as you would a delicious pan perdu, or French toast

In a large saute pan, melt butter and cook onion and shallots over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 3-5 minutes.  Add some of the salt partway through to pull out some moisture.  Now add rosemary and garlic and stir in for 1 minute.  Remove all from pan, and cook bacon until slightly crispy.  Drain on paper towels, then chop bacon into 1/4" pieces.

Into a large bowl, place toasted bread cubes, vegetable mixture, bacon pieces, egg - milk custard mixture, and half of the cheese.  Toss well to combine but don't stir so aggressively that you break up the bread cubes.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 1-8 hours.

Before the long rest and soak

After an 8 hour rest in the fridge.  Totally soaked up the egg mixture, fat and happy and ready for the oven

When ready to cook, grease an appropriate casserole with butter, and heat oven to 350 F.  Lightly spoon in bread pudding mixture into the dish (do not pack this in tightly, it will get mushy), and place in oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.  After 40 minutes, top with remaining grated cheese, and return to oven for 10-15 minutes longer, until browned and melted.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes and serve.

Served simply, where the bread pudding can be the star

Beer and Cheddar Soup

It may not be German, and it's certainly not healthy, but this was one of the most delicious soups I've ever eaten.  Made by a special friend, it was put together with precision, to ensure that everything came out perfectly.  With ingredients like beer, cheddar cheese, cream, and bacon, I'm not sure how this dish could possibly be bad, but thankfully it delivered on flavor, where it lacked in nutritional value.  Highly recommend this at an Oktoberfest party, or on a cold winter's night.  And definitely look for smoked cheddar if you can find it - it makes a huge difference in the flavor.

Beer-and-Cheddar Soup

From Food & Wine, Contributed by Jonathon Erdeljac

• 1/3 pound piece of slab bacon, sliced 1/3 inch thick and cut into 1/3-inch dice
• 1 celery rib, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 large jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
• One 12-ounce bottle lager or pilsner
• 2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 pound sharp yellow cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
• 4 ounces smoked cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Garlic-rubbed toasts, for serving

In a large saucepan, cook the bacon over moderate heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a bowl. Add the celery, onion, jalapeño, garlic and thyme to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, 8 minutes. Add half of the beer and cook until reduced by half, 5 minutes. Add 2 1/4 cups of chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Whisk this roux into the soup until incorporated and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 8 minutes. Add the heavy cream, cheddar cheeses and the remaining beer and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and creamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the bacon and season with salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of broth if the soup is too thick. Serve the soup with garlic toasts.

The cheddar soup can be refrigerated overnight. Rewarm gently and thin with additional broth.

Fettuccine with Black Garlic and Blue Cheese

I'm calling it right now, like I did about chipotles roughly ten years ago, but now I have a blog to use as my own personal stenographer:

Black Garlic.

This stuff is going to be everywhere soon.  Haven't heard of it?  Good, that means I beat you to it.  But you're about to find out about it, so steady yourself.

Many foods have been fermented over the years.  Pepperoni.  Cabbage.  Beer.  Some other things that tend to smell funny when fermented, like shark and peanuts (not kidding, look them up).  And now, garlic.  Apparently in 2004 some Korean dude figured out that if you expose garlic to high, humid temperatures, you can get it to ferment into something unbelievably delicious - kind of like a cross between the best roasted garlic you've ever had, balsamic vinegar, and fermented black beans, if you've ever tried those in lobster sauce.  It has something to do with the sugars in the garlic, and amino acids, and all kinds of chemistry that only a few people seem to have figured out, due to the "carefully controlled process" that this Korean guy worked out when he set up BlackGarlic.com and took his product commercial (see black garlic: how it's made).  So this isn't some naturally occurring thing - it's a new discovery, and you've got to get it from this guy, or one of his competitors.  But trust me, it's worth it.

Black garlic.  What?

I was given a small tub of this by my excellent mother about a year ago, and tried to figure out what to do with it.  And it took so long, about a year later I thought "maybe this needs to be thrown out".  But then I realized it's basically gone as bad as it's going to get, and gave it a shot.  So glad I didn't toss it - this was more delicious than any garlic I've ever eaten, and if it's stale at this point, then I can't even begin to imagine what the fresh stuff tastes like.  Picture if everything savory in the world just jumped into your mouth at once, dripping with garlic and tamarind-like flavors, in a small black morsel the size of a Hershey kiss and the consistency of a roasted beet.  That's black garlic.

Because it was so delicious, I wanted a recipe that would do it justice, not overpower, and allow the flavor to come through distinctly.  So I went with a simple pasta that also uses the pungency of blue cheese, but very little else, to showcase the garlic.  Amazing use of the stuff, and I can't wait to make it again.


Fettuccine with Black Garlic and Blue Cheese
modified slightly from suddenlunch.com

• A slice of great bread, coarsely crumbled (about 4 tbsp, I used rosemary olive oil bread)
• 1 tbsp of olive oil, or black garlic-infused oil
• 9 ounce package of refrigerated fettuccine, or tagliatelle
• 6 oz blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 more tbsp of olive oil
• 5-6 cloves black garlic, coarsely chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper

The setup is really easy

Toss the breadcrumbs with 1 tbsp oil in a small bowl.  Over medium heat, cook the breadcrumbs until crispy, shaking often.  You could also bake these if you like.

Dry-frying the breadcrumbs gets them delicious and crispy

Chop or crumble the cheese and mix together most of it with the chopped garlic and the second tbsp of oil.

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package.  Set aside about 2 ounces of the cooking water, then drain the pasta.  Now toss together the pasta and the blue cheese mixture in a pan, adding the reserved cooking water as necessary until you have a light sauce.

Taste and season with ample amounts of freshly ground black pepper, then stir in some of the crisp crumbs and top the pasta with the rest, as well as the rest of the blue cheese crumbles.  Serve immediately.

Variations: add sliced, pan-seared chicken breast, add chopped chives as additional garnish

30-Minute Mozzarella

If you're like me, you tend to let a good amount of food spoil and then experience "first-world guilt", described as a pang somewhere near your overly plump stomach that makes you feel terrible about wasting food while others are starving.  Well, here's an interesting way to prevent that, which (it turns out) has been what Europeans have been doing for centuries - make cheese out of your milk.  There are plenty of reasons to do this:

• It's cost-effective
• You have control over exactly what goes into the finished product
• Homemade cheese is guaranteed to separate out the lactose-containing elements and trap them in the whey, while mass-produced cheeses don't always do this
• It tastes amazing if you do it right
• It's really freaking cool to see this happen

I got this recipe out of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, who in turn got it from the "Cheese Queen", Ricki Carroll (www.cheesemaking.com).  It's basically verbatim, although presented as something in between the two recipes they each list.  I made this twice in two days - the first time to learn what NOT to do, the second time to get a good product.  FYI, things not to do here: don't use cheesecloth just because you think cheesecloth is used in the manufacture of all cheese.  Don't overstir after adding rennet.  Don't overheat on the stove.  Don't forget to buy gloves before kneading.  And definitely don't rush the cutting of the curd before it has set - that's the #1 most important tip here.  Patience is a virtue, and it was only about 2 minutes of patience.

The ingredient list is incredibly short, and the equipment list is similar.  All you will need for hardware is a large (1.5+ gallon) pot, an instant thermometer, and a microwave-safe bowl.  Ironically, cheesecloth was not necessary for this, despite my having bought some expressly for this purpose.  And the ingredients require just four things: milk, salt, rennet, and citric acid.  To find those last two, I suggest a homebrew store or health food store / co-op for the rennet, and, surprisingly, a hardware store or craft store for the citric acid.  Look in the canning section, citric acid is used in jam- and jelly-making as well as canning a number of other products, so it's not impossible to find.  And by the way, if you see rennet's lesser cousin, junket, don't even bother - just keep searching until you find the real deal, which is much more powerful.

And now, a history on cheese.  Turns out that long ago, people used to carry around their beverages not in Nalgenes and Siggs, but in cow stomachs.  Well, folks noticed that when they put their liquids into these stomachs, for some strange reason the milk kept turning solid, separating the liquid whey from the more solid curds.  The reason was not apparent until later, but it had to do with enzymes found in the cow's stomach lining, which eventually were discovered, named "rennet", and sold to cheesemakers the world around.  If you are daring, feel free to look up how they acquire rennet from a cow's stomach, but you should probably just take my word and be grateful that now you can buy this ready-made, and note that these days you are much more likely to find a rennet derived from vegetables or even microbes than you are from cow's stomach.

The cut curd, sitting in whey, waiting to be made into deliciousness.  There's some old nursery rhyme about this.  Something about muppets and spiders.

I learned an interesting fact about the name "mozzarella".  Turns out that it comes from the Italian verb "mozzare", meaning "to cut".  This is because of how they form the cheese into balls when everything is working perfectly, where they fold the cheese over itself a few times, form into a tight ball, and then pinch the cheese ball from the main strand before storing.  The cheese is closely related to scamorza cheese, which is derived from "scamozzata", which translates as "without a shirt".  Love it.

30-Minute Mozzarella

by Ricki Carroll, by way of Barbara Kingsolver

• 1 gallon milk.  This can be whole, part skim, whatever, just so long as it isn't ultra-pasteurized.  Go with raw if you're daring, but if you get sick and die, it's totally not my fault.  Learn from Louis Pasteur, they didn't name the process after him for nothing.
• 1.5 tsp citric acid, dissolved in 1/4 cup cool distilled water
• Rennet (liquid is best, tablets work if that's all you can find), dissolved in another 1/4 cup cool distilled water.  1/4 tsp for liquid, or 1/2 tablet for pellets.
• Salt, to taste

Just four ingredients, all shown here.  And if you couldn't guess that 'milk' was one, you should  probably search for other hobbies, like bricklaying or popping bubble wrap.

Add the milk to the pot and place over medium-low heat.  Add citric acid once milk gets to 55 deg. F and stir.  The mixture will begin to curdle as it gets warmer, which is really cool to watch.

When the mixture gets to 88 deg F, add the rennet dissolved in water, and stir in with a spoon in a gentle up-down motion.  Remove from the heat, and let sit for 5 minutes to set up.  Do NOT stir during this period.

Add the dissolved rennet at 88-90 deg F, then kill heat and leave alone.  Better to pour this over a slotted spoon to distribute quickly and evenly, then stir with an up-and-down motion.  This photo is from my first attempt, not the better second attempt shown below.

Now, a question you might have is this:

"I can see the cheese curdling with just the citric acid - why should I bother adding rennet as well?"

Well, Mr. Know-It-All, it turns out you're right, but only partially.  If you just add citric acid, you will be making an 'acid-set cheese', which is what cream cheese, ricotta, and paneer are.  But adding rennet will give you much more complexity of flavor, so don't skip it or your cheese will be bland, and will take quite a while to set up.

Once the curd (solid portion) has set, the whey (liquid portion) will become mostly clear.  If it's not yet clear, allow the mixture to sit a few minutes longer.  Most soft cheeses are actually made by allowing the enzyme in the rennet to work overnight, so don't worry about letting this sit for a few minutes extra.  But once you're satisfied, cut the cheese into 1" curd squares with a big knife.  Place the pot with the sliced curd back on the stove and heat to 105 deg F.  Once heated, remove with a slotted spoon, or a spider if you have one, to a large collander.

Grab a large knife that can reach to the bottom of the pan and cut into medium cubes.  This will allow more whey to be released, and promote even heating

Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon.  The curd will have the consistency of a runny custard.

Allow the curds to drain off as much of the whey as they're prepared to give off.  Once curds are all removed from the pot and drained, place the bowl in the microwave and heat for 60 seconds on high.  This will wring out more of the whey, which you can pour off before kneading the curd slightly.  Discard any remaining whey that forms, then heat again for 35 seconds.  Knead again, pour off whey again.  Do this one last time for 35 seconds, kneading and pouring off any whey.  This is going to be knuckle-searing hot when you're done, so be prepared.

Drain off the whey as you continue heating.  Note: this cheese is for friends and family, who can handle arm hair in their cheese.

Continue kneading to release more whey and get to a shiny ball state.  This isn't ready yet.

Now the next fun part - stretching and kneading the curd.  First, add salt to taste (I added about 1 tbsp to a gallon's worth of milk after I saw a video from BelGioioso that called for 1 tbsp per pound of curd), and knead the curd a few times.  It should be around 135 deg F for this to work.  As you stretch the dough, it should easily elongate, rather than snap apart.  If it stretches, keep forming into a ball and stretching a few times to align the protein strands.  If it doesn't, give it a bit more kneading until you get that firm skin and shiny surface to the ball, then try stretching again.

Almost there...

...nope.  Needs more kneading.

Getting pretty close...

Bingo!  This is the look you want for the cheese.

Only do this a few times - the longer you do it, the more of a string cheese consistency you will have.  If the curd isn't stretching, reheat again and try after warmed up again.  After you've stretched the curd a number of times, it should begin to look shiny and elastic, and will stretch easily, like taffy.  Pull this into a long rope, and  shape however you like.  This time I spun it around itself and then just folded it up, like a pretzel.

Once the cheese looks shiny and is at the right temperature (135 F or so), you should be able to do this.  Bring people in to watch.

You can braid it, or form back into a ball.  If you  really want traditional "mozza"-rella,  you have to make a long ribbon, then form into balls and pinch them from the ribbon.

Or form into whatever shape you like.  I don't care.

Once you're satisfied with the shape, drop the finished cheese into a bath of cold water.  This will stop the cooking process.  You can now slice and eat immediately (best option), or wrap in plastic wrap and store for up to a week in the fridge.

Drop in cold water to stop the cooking.

Slice and serve, or store in plastic wrap for a week.  If it's around that long.

And here's something you could do with your mozzarella, if you were so inclined.

Here's another: Italian sausage sandwich melts

And a classic: insalata caprese di tomate e mozzarella

Chicken Stuffed with Fontina, Artichokes, and Sundried Tomatoes

As part of my quest to clear out recipes in my "to-do" box, I picked up some Fontina cheese today to make this dish.  On my way home, I thought - stuffed chicken breast... that probably means I'll be standing around beating the fight out of these chickens to flatten them out, which won't really go too well with my shoulder injury.  But to my pleasant surprise, this prep method was quite painless, and didn't require use of a hammer.

This dish came together very quickly, and with the right tools, it's fast, easy, and succulent.  I didn't know what to expect of the Fontina cheese, which is kind of like a Gouda but much softer, and perhaps smelled a bit more ripe.  This pungency survived the cooking process, and added a nice tang to complement the sweet herb flavor of the basil, the tartness of the sun-dried tomatoes, and the mellow garlicky base of the artichokes.  And to top that off, the mix was crammed inside of one of the most juicy chicken breasts I may have ever cooked.  Not too shabby.

I couldn't believe how moist these came out, and how quickly they cooked given their size.  Huge fan of this cooking method now.

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fontina, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
from Bon Appétit, February 2008
 

• 1 6-ounce jar marinated artichokes, drained, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Fontina cheese
• 1/4 cup (packed) drained, coarsely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh basil
• 2 5-ounce skinless boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

The setup

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix artichokes, cheese, tomatoes, and basil in medium bowl. Using small sharp knife and working with 1 chicken breast at a time, cut 2-inch-long slit horizontally into 1 side of chicken breast. Move knife back and forth in slit to form pocket. Divide 1 cup cheese mixture among chicken pockets (reserve remainder for frittata). Press edges to seal. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Make your filling by coarsely chopping the ingredients and tossing together loosely to combine.  Don't squeeze it too tightly, or you'll end up with a cheese log.

This was way too much fun - slice through the side of the chicken breast and make a pocket, like you're opening a pita.  Don't slice through the opposite side, you want only one narrow slit and a huge cavern into which you will cram the filling.

Now spoon that filling in there, but don't overstuff

Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over high heat.  I vote cast iron, but stainless steel will work if that's what you've got.  Add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn the chicken over, and immediately transfer the skillet to the oven.  Bake until cooked through, about (note: about, not exactly) 10 minutes.

Note that the filling wasn't so tightly packed that it started escaping out the side.  You'll burn your cheese if you do that, and nobody like that.

Get a nice browned crust on one side, then flip and transfer to the oven.

How do you know when it's done?  Get out your digital thermometer, and test the center.  If it's not at 160 or higher, add another few minutes.  After 10 minutes, mine was at 130.  So I gave it another 5, and it was perfect.  If you want to be safe, bring it up to 170, but even that will start to dry it out too much.  Serve with a starch and some kind of green vegetable, but ideally nothing too powerful to drown out the flavors of this.

 

The finished dish, served over spinach with roasted potatoes

Chorizo Breakfast Frittata

I was stumbling through the shop of a Cracker Barrel recently (don't ask me why, I don't have a good answer) and picked up the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook, by Pam Hoenig.  Figuring it would be a shameless way to promote Lodge cookware, I was skeptical at first.  But when the first recipe looked like gold and I tried to take a picture of it with my cellphone camera, I figured I might break down and buy the thing.  And so now I have many more excuses to use my cast iron cookware, which is most assuredly a good thing.

If you don't own any cast iron cookware, then shame on you.  Go down south, eat some country cookin', and then come back up to your posh city chic apartment and order some on Amazon.  You won't regret it, cast iron holds heat better than anything out there and develops great flavor by promoting browning.  And it's practically nonstick, since it's "seasoned" with a perpetual layer of stanky cooking oil that just keeps baking deeper into the metal as you use it.  Traditionally, a bride in many families in the southern United States was given an unseasoned (bare metal) set of cast iron, and it was supposed to last for the life of her marriage.  I suppose if this were one of Kim Kardashian's gifts, the thing would have rusted almost immediately.  But a proper kitchen will not use soap on their cast iron, and it will last for a lifetime of delicious, artery-clogging meals.  And so I present to you one of them...

Chorizo frittata - a one pan meal of epic deliciousness, done proper-like in the cast iron skillet

Breakfast Frittata with Chorizo

from the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook

• 3/4 pound bulk chorizo sausage (casings removed)
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 large handfuls baby spinach, Swiss chard, or arugula, washed and well dried
• 8 ounces feta, cotija, or any Mexican firm cheese such as queso fresco, crumbled
• 1 large ripe tomato

All of the ingredients, including queso fresco and some homemade bulk chorizo at right

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Brown the sausage in a 10" cast iron skillet over medium heat, until crumbly and no longer pink.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Drain all of the fat from the skillet, but leave the residue with the sausage-y goodness in the pan for some extra flavor.

'Brown' in the cast iron - don't just grey your meat, make sure you get some flavor through the Maillard reaction by browning it.  Why use the cast iron if you're not going to take advantage of its benefits?

Place the eggs, cream, salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a large bowl, and whisk until foamy.  Add all of the remaining ingredients, including the drained chorizo, and stir to incorporate.  WARNING: this is messy, so be sure to use a larger bowl than you think is necessary.

Get some air into the eggs.  Come on, work those ova!

"...and mix them all together in a big jug."

Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook over medium heat until it begins to set and hold together around the outside edge.  Transfer to the oven and bake until the top of the frittata has puffed up and is golden brown, 25-35 minutes.

Let the mixture set up on the bottom slightly, and then throw in the oven.  Not all of the spinach wilted down before baking, as you can see here.

Slice the frittata into 8 wedges and serve immediately.  You don't need to worry about letting it cool, since the cheese won't melt and make a huge mess.  Feel free to garnish with sour cream, sliced scallions, pico de gallo, cilantro, or nothing at all - it doesn't need anything extra!

Going, going, gone.  Leaving a little of the sausage drippings in the pan added to the flavor of the crust that forms on the base of the frittata.  Everything set up nicely, and was very easy to serve given the firmness of the cheese.