Are you lucky enough to have a vegetable garden this year? If not, do you go to the local Farmer's Market? I have both options and tomatoes are starting to be everywhere! Gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, bright yellows, reds, multi-colors everywhere I look. A great way to show off fresh flavors and colors is with as little prep work as possible, least amount of additional ingredients; allowing the food to speak for itself.
Fresh salsa screams juicy, sweet flavors and gorgeous colors. The layered tortilla omelet is just as much fun to put together and a great base for toppling on large spoonfuls of the colorful salsa. I added the recipe for making your own red sauce. This sauce is made for adding heat in the tortilla omelet. There will be a lot left over so freeze the excess for later use . . . maybe to make this omelet again.
The tortilla omelet works great for breakfast, brunch or dinner served with a chilled, light and fruity white wine.
Layered Tortilla Omelet With Homemade Salsa
Ingredients:
9 large eggs
1 1/2 t. salt and a few turns of freshly ground pepper
1 t. thyme
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. butter
3/4 c. chopped scallions
4 eight-inch flour tortillas
2 c. red or green enchilada sauce OR Red Chile Sauce (RECIPE FOLLOWS)
1 c. cream cheese (even better, use queso fresco if you can get it)
4 ounces goat cheese
1 1/2 c. grated Monterey Jack cheese
***OPTIONAL:***
RED CHILE SAUCE
2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 T. Dijon mustard
3 to 4 T. chile powder (I mixed mine; 2 T. New Mexico and 2 T. California chile powders)
1 t. sugar to cut down acidity in tomatoes
3/4 c. beer (Corona or XX Mexican beer would be appropriate, or substitute sparkling wine)
1 t. soy sauce
1 t. oregano
1 t. ground cumin
10-12 ripe Roma tomatoes or 1 1/2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes
1/4 c. red chile puree (I will post the recipe for homemade puree)
OR substitute canned red chile sauce
2 t. balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste
TO MAKE THE OMELETS:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet (or use a silicon mat), spread 3 of the tortillas on the sheet and place in the oven to get warm.
Beat the eggs with the salt, pepper and herbs in a quart-sized glass measuring cup to make it easier to divide the eggs in three parts.
Mix the cream cheese and goat cheese together.
Melt 1/2 teaspoon of butter over medium heat in a skillet the same size as the tortillas. I used my 8-inch crepe pan. The perfect size! Pour in 1/3 of the egg mixture. Cook until the edges get dry, which will only take a few minutes.Then lift out the flat omelet with a large spatula and place it directly onto a flour tortilla on the warmed greased baking sheet. Repeat two more times, keeping the omelets warm in the oven until the last one is ready.
TO ASSEMBLE:
On the baking sheet, ladle 1/4 of the sauce over a tortilla/omelet and crumble 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture and 1/4 of the jack cheese over the sauce. Sprinkle 1/3 of the scallions on top.
Place the next tortilla/omelet on top and repeat. Repeat again with the third tortilla/omelet and place the remaining plain tortilla on top with the last of the sauce. Sprinkle the remaining jack cheese over the top.
Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
Make a tent out of aluminum foil so that you can cover the stack without touching the top, or all of the cheese will stick and come off on the foil. I also spray the foil with PAM just to be sure.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes until the tortillas and omelets are heated through and the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and let the stack sit for a few minutes so that the layers don't slide. Cut it into wedges and serve with Fresh Salsa over the top.
OPTIONAL RED CHILE SAUCE DIRECTIONS:
In a saucepan, saute onion in a little bit of olive oil until soft. Add mustard and chile powder. Cook for a few minutes to soften the rawness of the chile powder. Stir in beer, soy sauce, oregano, sugar and cumin along with the tomatoes. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add more beer if the mixture looks dry. Remove the pan from the heat. Let the mixture cool a few minutes and then puree using a blender or food processor.
Return to a low heat and add the chile puree or red chile sauce and balsamic vinegar. Cook a few minutes more to marry the ingredients together.
Add more of the beer if needed for a good spreading consistency. The sauce will have a strong chile taste. It is suppose too. You want to taste a little heat in the tortilla/omelet but you will not taste the sauce itself.
Chunky Garden Salsa
Directions:
1 heirloom tomato; preferably yellow
4 Roma tomatoes
1/2 sweet onion
1 roasted red pepper from a jar
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lime
3 cloves of garlic puree using a garlic press
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
salt to taste
1/3 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
I chopped all my ingredients by hand (instead of using the pulse button on a food processor) because I wanted large chunks and less juice. Stir together and allow to sit in the refrigerator overnight. Love how the flavors mingle.
