This dish incorporates virtually every food group, except wine, and it’s potentially infinitely variable.

Among those variations, to improve the chances for getting the eggs cooked just right, I’d suggest using ceramic dishes, or a single one, with a larger diameter than the six inches I had available.

 

• inside each of two lightly-oiled cazuelas, a small amount of Fage Greek plain yoghurt (because I had no cream on hand), followed by layers of Applegate Naturals prosciutto from Whole Foods, slices of heirloom tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, torn leaves of arugula from John D. Madura Farm, three eggs cracked open on the top, from Millport Dairy, and including along the way part of a crushed peperoncino, salt, freshly-ground black pepper, the dishes placed inside a 375º oven for about 20-25 minutes until the whites were almost opaque and the yolks (ideally) still runny, since the dish will continue to cook after leaving the oven, then allowed to cool a bit in order to better appreciate the combined flavors
• slices of Trucio Sare, from Sullivan Street Bakery
• the wine was a California (Mendocino) red, Derek Rohlffs 99 Barrels Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 2013
• the music was ‘Silent City‘, an album by the New York-based string quartet, Brooklyn Rider and Iranian Musician Kayhan Kalhor

I haven’t gotten this dish down to where I can say it always works out perfectly, even if we’ve always enjoyed it’s seductions, but I’m hoping to get there eventually.  The ideal would be whites just set, yokes still slightly runny, and I’m pretty sure it’s as much about the mass and type of ingredients as it is about the timing.  Part of my problem may be that I keep changing the rules, by which I mean, the ingredients used.

Incidentally, I had intended to add halved or sliced boiled potatoes to the mix this time, which would have made the dish more of a dinner course than it was, but I forgot to do so while I was rushing the light-handed improvising.

• two cazuelas brushed with olive oil, layered with a few leaves of white cabbage from Foragers and one branch of winter kale (including the chopped stem) from Rogowski Farm, both already briefly blanched, drizzled with a little cream, followed by sliced and halved Backyard Farms Maine cocktail tomatoes from Whole Foods, and one slice of Colameco’s uncured Capocollo and three eggs from Millport Dairy broken onto the surface of each, thinly-sliced baby leeks from Rogowski Farm scattered on top, everything seasoned with salt and pepper, and the dishes baked at 375º for about 20-25 minutes, or until the whites were set, which was just before shredded Parmesan cheese was added on top only a couple of minutes before
• slices of Trucio from Sullivan Street Bakery
• the wine was an American red, Pinot Noir, Smoking Loon 2012

I got a bit carried away last night with a recipe I had enjoyed twice before in more simple forms.  The recipe that had started as ‘baked eggs with mushrooms, and Gruyère’ on New Years Day was delicious, and the slightly more elaborate, ‘baked eggs with mushrooms, Gruyère, scallions, and tomato’ with the addition of two eggs and some tomato, was different, but probably equally good.  Last night I may have gone a bit too far, with ‘baked eggs with mushrooms, leeks, tomato, and cress, or maybe I just lost my balance, but the dish didn’t quite shine, and not only because the egg yolks ended up cooked through rather than just a little runny.

I think I had eventually missed the minimal point of the original, sensible recipe, and made it a bit top heavy, but the dish did make a reasonable, and colorful, picture.  That may be the only excuse for this post.

• Shiitake mushrooms from John D. Maderna Farms, sautéed for a few minutes over medium high heat before the addition of garlic from Migliorelli Farm, minced, thyme from Manhattan Fruit Exchange, chopped, both heated for a minute or two and placed in a buttered ceramic baking dish, replaced in the pan by one leek from Lucky Dog Organic, sliced thinly and sautéed before also being placed in the baking dish, after which six eggs from Millport Dairy were cracked open on top, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with shredded cheese (Swiss Le Gruyère from Trader Joe’s), and dotted with halved ‘Cocktail Tomatoes’ from Maine, purchased at Whole Foods, the entire surface drizzled with a bit of heavy cream, and the dish baked in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the whites were set and the yolks were (ideally) still barely runny, placed on plates and tossed with upland cress from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the wine was a Poruguese red, Periquita Original 2011 Jose Maria de Fonseca Setúbal

I had put this dish together before, early on New Years’ Day, as a lunch.  I revisited it as a dinner, with a few enhancements, tonight.

•  shiitake mushrooms from Bulich Mushroom, sautéed for a few minutes over medium high heat before the addition of garlic from Migliorelli Farm, minced, thyme from Manhattan Fruit Exchange, chopped, and one scallion, also from Manhattan Fruit Exchange, julienned, the mix lifted into a buttered baking dish, followed by six eggs from Knoll Krest Farm cracked over the top, seasoned with salt and pepper and dotted with halved cherry tomatoes from Shushan Hydro Farm, sprinkled with shredded cheese (Swiss Le Gruyère) from Trader Joe’s, the surface drizzled with a bit of heavy cream, the dish then baked in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the whites were set and the yolks were still barely runny
• the cooked eggs were served on toasted slices of Trucio bread from Sullivan Street Bakery
• the wine was a Spanish red, Flavium Premium Bierzo 2008

It was an off day, meaning it was neither a Greenmarket day (so no fresh fish) nor one on which I wanted to serve any significant amount of meat.  A simple vegetarian pasta dish would normally have been in order, but then I thought about the fresh eggs, perfectly ripe tomatoes, thinly-sliced prosciutto, and a bit of some very sweet kale which I had on hand, , so I looked around for a formula.

Mark Bittman again.

His 2007 recipe, “Baked Egg With Prosciutto and Tomato” became my starting point.  I had stashed the clipping in my ‘breakfast/lunch’ folder, but I had never used it, perhaps because it suggested only one egg for each portion.  I never totally forgot it however, even though I rarely actually cook breakfast, and seldom cook lunch;  by the time either of us is thinking of those meals, neither is willing to hold off hunger to wait for the prep.

But I love eggs, and I can appreciate them with any meal, so I took another look at the recipe and decided that adding two more eggs to the cazuelas would not corrupt it. Bittman’s text also suggested adding cooked spinach or asparagus to the bottom of each vessel;  I had some purple kale and was sure it would do just fine.

It made for a pretty decent dinner.   Breakfast or lunch even.

• casuelas, each brushed inside with olive oil and layered with purple kale from Lucky Dog Organic, already braised, drizzled with a little cream, small Maine tomatoes (backyard farms.com), sliced, sliced prosciutto, both the tomatoes and the prosciutto from Whole Foods, three eggs from Knoll Krest Farm broken onto the surface, and finally one half of a chopped raw Brussels sprout (found all alone in the crisper, having escaped inclusion in an earlier meal), the whole baked until the eggs were set, the whites solidified, then seasoned with good salt and pepper
• the wine was a Spanish Rioja, Ermita de San Felices Crianza 2009