The dish to which the term "omelette" refers varies internationally in name and form, but they're all essentially the same thing: beaten eggs cooked flat in a skillet. The eggs may be cooked thickly and sliced like cake, producing the tradtional Spanish tortilla, or cooked thinly, producing a lemelle, an Old French term from which the word "omelette" comes. In order to investigate the omelette, I first turned to Wolfgang Puck, who instructs us to make omelettes that come out of the pan lightly browned on the outside, smooth and still moist on the inside with a bit of tomatoes and thyme rolled in. To the best of my knowledge, this fold-over form is the classic French method of preparation, and agrees with the description provided by Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, where she tells us "A good French omelette is a smooth, gently swelling, golden oval that is tender and creamy inside. And as it takes less than half a minute to make, it is ideal for a quick meal."
Thirty seconds to crack eggs, prepare a filling and cook it all in a pan? That might be a liberal estimation, Julia. I've made more omelettes than any other food, probably, and I've adapted my approach the matter.
I like to prepare the interior ingredients of my omelettes first, and I find that diced tomatoes and browned minced shallots -- both sauteed lightly -- crumbled goat cheese and a pinch of tiny fresh thyme leaves is a good place to begin. Next, start on the eggs. Although the usual eggs from a grocer are unlikely to contain any pathogens inside -- the surface of their shells is another far dirtier story, allegedly -- I prefer to use pastuerized eggs, which allows me to unhesitatingly fork my way into the slightly runny middle of the omelette.
Because we're dealing with eggs in a pan, the cooking technique for an omelette is a variation of scrambling, which, in my experience, is not allowing the stirring utensil to contact the bottom of the pan in which you're preparing the omelette. The egg that sticks to the bottom of the pan forms the omelette's lightly browned, almost crisp exterior. Once the eggs are in the pan, be sure to scrape them away from the bottom, and instead scramble only the surface of the eggs. If you stir in the filling ingredients and cook it all by scraping away the cooked egg from the pan's bottom and allowing uncooked egg to fill its place, you'd have a frittata, the omelette's Italian cousin.
That being said, you're not going to get away with leaving the pan-stuck egg in place for longer than two minutes. After that -- even after merely ninety seconds, if your burner runs hot -- you're nearing Burn Territory, and that is territory on which we don't want to tread. Consequently, if you're going to cook these eggs in under two minutes, you'll need to spread them shallowly over the bottom of a pan that is Not Too Deep. For a three-egg omelette, which is a hearty breakfast portion, an eight-inch non-stick skillet is ideal; for two eggs, use a six-inch skillet.
Once you've beaten the eggs -- perhaps mixing in a half teaspoon of a few fresh herbs, too -- and prepared the filling, set your omelette pan over medium heat. When it's hot, throw in one tablespoon of butter and coat the surface of the pan. When the pan is coated, pour in the egg mixture and turn the heat to just above medium-high. Don't touch the pan or stir the eggs until the edges of the egg begin the furl, about thirty seconds, at which point you should begin stirring the surface of the egg mixture -- not too deeply! -- and tilting the pan around in a circular motion to move some of the uncooked egg up around the yet exposed surface of the pan. Continue creating movement on the surface of the the eggs for one minute, or until only a bit of uncooked egg remains. Now, sprinkle the filling across the half of the omelette nearest to the pan handle. Then, using a spatula, fold the omelette by folding the bare half over and onto the filled half.
If it develops a tear along the fold, don't sweat it. You can hide the tear by serving it with the folded side facing away from the eater and additionally distracting him from inspection with intriguing conversation and eye contact. Furthermore, if your fold turns out an ill-formed, lop-sided thing and you're really concerned about presentation, try laying a clean kitchen towel over the omelette once it's on a plate, which provides a stable and sanitary means to re-form it using your hands.
Top it with a few leaves of fresh parsley and serve it alongside buttered sourdough for breakfast, or a small salad for lunch.
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