Ham and Cheese Frittata -- The Cooking Nobody Sees

The Milwaukee Magazine article dropped. "Milwaukee's Next Food Generation: Four Voices Reshaping How We Eat." There I am, on page forty-seven, holding a pierogi in the brewery kitchen, looking like a man who is trying very hard not to look like he's trying. The photo is good. The article is better. Claire captured something I couldn't have written myself. She wrote about how I'm not a chef — I'm a brewer who cooks, a grandson who inherited recipes, a twenty-two-year-old who's figuring out his relationship with tradition in real time. She quoted me saying, "I'm not trying to reinvent Polish food. I'm trying to keep it alive while letting it grow." I don't remember saying that. But it's exactly right. The other three people in the article are extraordinary. A Vietnamese-American woman who makes phß╗ƒ from her grandmother's recipe but adds Wisconsin dairy to the broth. A Black woman who fuses soul food and farm-to-table. A Mexican-American pastry chef who makes conchas with local grains. We're all doing the same thing: honoring where we came from while living where we are. The magazine sent me five copies. One for Mom. One for Dad. One for Mrs. Wojcik. One for the brewery breakroom. One for me, which I'll never admit I've looked at approximately fifty times. Danny's birthday is next week. Twenty-three. I'm going to make smash burgers and bring them to the cemetery and eat them on the grass next to his headstone, the way we would have eaten together if the world had been fair. This week's cooking was simple — I needed a break from performance. Made a pot of Babcia's rosó┼é (chicken soup), a batch of the standard pierogi, and a lazy Sunday breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. Sometimes the best cooking is the cooking nobody sees. The Tuesday night pierogi. The Thursday morning eggs. The meals that don't get photographed or written about or filmed. The meals that are just for you and the quiet kitchen and the ghost of a grandmother who hums while you work.

The Milwaukee Magazine article was wonderful, and I’m grateful for every word of it — but the cooking I kept coming back to this week was the kind that never gets photographed. Lazy Sunday morning, quiet kitchen, a pan of eggs. I’ve been making some version of this ham and cheese frittata since I was old enough to reach the stove, and it’s exactly the kind of meal Babcia would’ve approved of: honest ingredients, no performance, nothing to prove. If the pierogi and the rosół are about heritage, this frittata is about Saturday light coming through the window and not needing it to mean anything more than that.

Ham and Cheese Frittata

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup diced ham (about 4 oz)
• 1/4 cup diced yellow onion
• 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat broiler. Position an oven rack 6 inches from the broiler element and preheat your broiler to high.
2. Whisk the eggs. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until fully combined and slightly frothy. Set aside.
3. Saute the filling. Melt the butter in a 10-inch oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3—4 minutes. Add the diced ham and cook 1—2 minutes more, until lightly heated through.
4. Add the eggs. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the ham and onion. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the cheddar over the top. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook undisturbed until the edges are set but the center is still slightly jiggly, about 6—8 minutes.
5. Broil to finish. Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar over the surface. Transfer the skillet to the broiler and cook until the top is golden and puffed and the center is just set, 2—3 minutes. Watch closely — it goes fast.
6. Rest and serve. Remove from the oven and let rest 2 minutes. Scatter fresh chives or parsley over the top if using. Slice into wedges and serve directly from the pan.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 245 | Protein: 19g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 3g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg