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Italian Cuisine Expert and Food Blogger
Guido Pedrelli
Guido Pedrelli, the mastermind behind Nonna Box, has honed his culinary expertise for decades, inspired by family feasts in Emilia-Romagna. Mentored by his restaurateur nonna, he mastered Italian classics and furthered his skills with professional culinary studies in desserts and gelato making from Mec3. Today, he shares this rich legacy and authentic recipes through Nonna Box.
One of the most popular lunchtimes dishes on menus are omelettes and occasionally one does find really good omelettes; but that’s occasionally and it’s strange because they’re pretty easy to make, both plain or filled. The trick here, again, lies in the eggs and the pan.
Eggs need to be fresh and the pan should be kept for omelettes only. My mother had a pan that was used only for omelettes and we didn’t even consider using it for anything else. In fact, we didn’t touch that pan, period. It was made of cast iron and it had a curved edge which made it easy to turn out the omelette; it was also never scrubbed by anyone and only she cleaned it or touched it.
For a tiny 1½ meter woman, she had a ferocious temper. If you’re all going to rush out & buy a new pan, treat it before you use it like like my mom did:
Wash it well, dry it well and cover the bottom of the pan with oil and leave it to stand for 12 hours at which point you heat it until it smokes, remove it from the heat, pour off all the oil & wipe it clean with absorbent paper.
Each time you use the pan, wipe it with a damp cloth dipped in salt. I know we have non-stick pans that are simply marvelous today but I don’t like them, I still prefer the old fashioned heavy based aluminum pan for this. I also don’t like fried eggs cooked in non stick pans because they taste rubbery.
There are two kinds of omelettes, the plain omelette (also called the French omelette for some reason) or the soufflé omelette; here’s a recipe for a plain omelette.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add them in a frying pan with a heated butter. Next, gently push the cooked portions from edges into the center of the pan. When no visible liquid egg remains, fold the omelette in half and invert or slide it onto a plate.
There are people who like their omelette flipped and there are also who doesn’t want it to be flipped. The traditional way of making an omelette is by flipping it.
One serving of omelette uses 2 eggs, and two servings uses 4 eggs. You should not make an omelette with more than 5 eggs.
