Frittata di Spaghetti (Neapolitan Spaghetti Omelet)
I’ve heard Italians from other regions make jokes about how Neapolitans love their frittatas of pasta — “those poor people whose cuisine is so limited and who eat so much pasta they even put it in their omelets.” It’s a point not well taken in Naples, where the pasta frittata is instead considered a stroke of Neapolitan genius: “We clever people who can take just a few eggs, some bits of cheese and leftover spaghetti and make such a glorious dish.” Once you have made a spaghetti frittata, you will definitely side with the Neapolitans and make the dish a part of your life, too.
Frittata di Spaghetti 
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Serves 4 as a main dish, about 8 as an antipasto
Ingredients:
- 6-8 ounces linguine, spaghetti or other pasta, cooked and sauced or not sauced, leftover or freshly cooked, at room temperature
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino or a combination of both (or more to taste)
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Optional: 5 ounces scamorza or several-days-old mozzarella, sliced
Instructions:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the pasta, the beaten eggs, the black pepper and the grated cheese. Mix well.
- In a 9- to 10-inch nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and swirl it around to make it coat the bottom of the pan.
- Add half the pasta and spread it evenly in the pan. Place the sliced cheese on top (if using), but don’t put any cheese within 1/2-inch of the edge. Add the remaining pasta and spread it to make sure it covers the bottom pasta layer and the sliced cheese. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes to 8 minutes, or until the bottom browns.
- Place a plate on top of the pan and reverse the frittata so it falls onto the plate. Slip the frittata back into the skillet and cook the other side for another 5 to 8 minutes, until it browns.
- Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
Variations:
Instead of scamorza or mozzarella, you can use any good melting cheese, such as Gouda, Fontina, Gruyère, or Swiss (Emmenthaler).
In addition to, or instead of, the melting cheese, sprinkle a few extra tablespoons of grated cheese between the layers of pasta.
Add diced salami or diced, thinly sliced ham with the cheese.
– From Naples At Table: Cooking In Campania; More Than 250 Recipes From Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, Salerno, The Amalfi Coast, Capri And Ischia. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. 436p. –
