Impromptorta

A couple weekends ago, I was puppy sitting my parents new dog, Winston. Stuck in the far reaches of Upper Northwest, and isolated from my usual weekend activities (OK, fine, that mostly means cleaning my apartment, but still), I decided, at the last minute as usual, to bring the fun to me and have people over to cook brunch.

WRC and EJG arrived with fixings to make plum pancakes with blueberry sauce, JK with salad and roasting peppers, SNH with corn for grilling, PL with assorted pastries, NM and MA with requisite beverages. I had not planned so much as bought things that looked like a good idea: Ricotta Saltada and Niçoise olives in Herbes de Provence from Whole Foods, eggs and cream (from the Giant). As the others cooked, PL and I schemed the fate of said orphan ingredients.

Omlettes were going to be much too much of a hassle, and not very interesting, so I thought that perhaps we could fake a Spanish-style torta - like the ones I’d loved so much in Sevilla last year, only minus the potatoes. What we did:

9 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk
Chopped Niçoise olives in herbes de Provence
Ricotta Saltada, shaved.
3 large cherry tomatoes, chopped.
Tarragon
Savory
Black Pepper
Nutmeg (ONLY A PINCH!)

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes.

The result was yummy, but probably too sweet. This could be corrected by using light instead of heavy cream, or by omitting the tomatoes. I feel like the latter might be a good idea, but it needs a non-salty flavor, and I'm not sure what would be better. Onions? Spinach? Hmmm......

This is why I love experimental cuisine.