Repurpose Stale Bagels In A Classic Breakfast Frittata

Have you ever noticed how most sleeves of bagels sold in grocery stores come in packs of six? There are five days in the average work week and seven days in the actual week. Six bagels are simultaneously too many and not enough bagels for a consumer's needs — and nailing the perfect cream-cheese-to-bagel ratio is a whole other matter entirely. Good luck timing it exactly right so that you run out of bagels and cream cheese on the same day. Almost invariably, there'll be a leftover bagel or two in the pack that goes stale before you have the chance to eat it. But never fear. This frittata tip has your back: Put those stale bagels to good use and turn them into a knockout frittata.

If you've never made one before, frittatas are a classic Italian dish made from fried beaten eggs. (Think omelet meets quiche.) It's delicious served hot or cold, and simple enough for breakfast yet hearty enough for dinner. (Ina Garten swears by making classic egg dishes for dinner.) This reimagined bagel-frittata makes a killer one-pan, single-serve hearty meal. Or, paired with a fruit cup or some hashbrowns on the side, a single bagel could even be stretched to feed two people. To really bulk it up, you could even use heavy cream instead of half and half.

To do it, begin making a frittata as you normally might — with a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat, plus butter and slivered onions to sauté. Then, before adding in the eggs, tear up your stale bagel into bite-sized chunks and toss them in the pan. The butter will toast it into a golden brown morsel, at which point you can add in your usual frittata milk-and-eggs mixture on top. To finish, simply transfer the pan to the broiler to bake for about ten minutes, and you're done.

You could pair a stale everything bagel frittata with lox, dill, salty capers, and cream cheese. Use a stale salt bagel to amp up this spinach frittata recipe, or pair a stale egg bagel with leeks, radish tops, and brie. A stale sesame bagel would work well with shallots, cracked black pepper, and thinly sliced gold potatoes. You could even make a Tex-Mex version with a stale plain bagel, pepper jack cheese, diced spicy canned tomatoes (drained), jalapeno slices, and half a fresh avocado to garnish. (Sweet bagel fans, we hear you. Cinnamon raisin rocks, but it'll probably fare better in a bread pudding than it'll taste paired with eggs. It's best to stick to stale savory bagels for this tip.) Serve with a Bloody Mary, Mimosa, or cup of coffee to finish the meal.