Mushroom Ricotta Omelette with Leftover Tikka Masala
This is the story of an accidental recipe I whipped up when I stayed over at my friend Val’s place in San Francisco last summer. What do you know, it was during the height of the pandemic. We were all cooped up, working from home, and desperate for anything remotely interesting to happen in our then mundane lives. This omelette was our temporary savior.
I offered to make breakfast for everyone on one of the mornings during my stay (Val was the best host, it had to be repaid). I went to the kitchen and set out to find whatever was available in their refrigerator, which, at the time, was the equivalent of internal chaos. Oat milk cartons sandwiched tightly between take out boxes and bananas, carrot sticks fighting against bags of spinach and other leafy greens for real estate on the bottom shelf that’s stuffed to the brim — you get the picture. But hey, what home cook doesn’t love an overstocked fridge? The possibilities to make anything are endless. I grabbed whatever ingredients that caught my eye: butter, dill, chives, mushrooms, ricotta cheese, eggs, paprika. A simple French omelette with a mushroom and ricotta cheese filling could work. As I opened the fridge a second time to grab more eggs, I spotted a plastic container of leftover orange-looking sauce.
“Hey Val, what is this sauce you have in here on the top shelf?” I yelled.
“It’s chicken tikka masala! Leftover takeout from the other night!” she replied from the bathroom. “Help yourself!”
Look, don’t ask. I often don’t even know what I’m doing half of the time when I’m tasked with cooking something up in the kitchen, but my intuition was giving me the green light to experiment. Before I knew it, I was microwaving the sauce and placing dollops of it on top of the egg mixture as it was gently bubbling on the pan. After folding and plating the omelette, I added more of the sauce on top before garnishing it with chopped chives and dill. Safe to say, it was a huge success because Val and her roommates loved it so much, we ended up making a whopping eight more of these until we wiped the sauce container clean.
The creaminess of the ricotta and eggs. The fragrant smell of dill. The light spiciness from the sauce and paprika. If that’s not proper brunch material, then honestly, I don’t know what is.
Ingredients
3 eggs
1/2 cup of chopped button mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped chives, green onions, and/or dill
Ricotta cheese
Butter
Paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Chicken tikka masala sauce (store / restaurant bought is great)*
Instructions
Serves one
Crack the eggs into a medium sized bowl. Add chopped mushrooms, chives, and paprika into the eggs and mix evenly with a fork or whisk. Season with salt and pepper.
Place a small non-stick pan or skillet on medium low heat. Once the pan is warm, add a spoonful of butter and wait for it to melt completely.
Pour your omelette mixture into the pan. Wait for the bottom to be slightly cooked before you begin folding the omelette gently with a spatula. Halfway into the folding, add a few dollops of ricotta cheese and tikka masala sauce. Continue folding gently until the omelette shape is complete.
Transfer your omelette onto a plate. Add a generous spoonful of tikka masala sauce on top and garnish with more chives, green onions, and / or dill.
*Make it vegetarian friendly by skipping the meat when you spoon the sauce on your omelette.
