Project Foodie - The Good Egg: Eggs Baked in Roasted Tomato Sauce

The Good Egg: Eggs Baked in Roasted Tomato Sauce

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If you love eggs then "The Good Egg" by Marie Simmons is a must. Marie provides easy to prepare recipes for both classic egg dishes as well as new and intriguing egg recipes and various ethnic variations that encompass nearly every recipe category. "Eggs Baked in Roasted Tomato Sauce" is a mouth watering example that combines the rich flavor of roasted tomatoes with cheese topped baked eggs and toasts of Italian bread.

Eggs Baked in Roasted Tomato Sauce

From "The Good Egg" by Marie Simmons, Houghton Mifflin Company

To coax flavor from out of season plum tomatoes, I roast them. Here they are roasted with olive oil and garlic and then pureed into a thick tomato sauce with a rich caramelized vegetable flavor. This sauce has multiple uses, but here I use it as a cocoon for baked eggs with cheese. To serve, drizzle thick slices of toasted Italian bread with extra virgin olive oil. Set the bread in shallow soup bowls and top each one with the sauce and the cheese topped baked eggs.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

3 pounds plum tomatoes, washed, trimmed and halved
½ onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, bruised with the side of a knife
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Eggs

4 to 8 large eggs
1 cup shredded aged Gruyere, Comte, or Italian Fontina (about 4 ounces)
Toasted Italian bread

1.   Make the sauce: Preheat the oven to 400F. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, on a heavy sheet pan or large roasting pan. Scatter the onion and garlic over the top. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt; add a grinding of black pepper.

2.   Roast for 20 minutes. Turn the tomatoes cut side down, sprinkle with salt and the thyme and spoon the juices and olive oil over the tomatoes, Roast for 20 to 30 minutes more, or until the skins are slightly blackened. Remove and let cool slightly. Leave the oven turned on.

3.   Set a food mill over a large saucepan and transfer the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and all the juices to the food mill. Press through the mill. Discard solids. (If you don't have a food mill, transfer to a food processor and finely chop, then press through a strainer with a rubber spatula; discard the solids.) There should be 2 to 2 1/2 cups of sauce. (The sauce can be made 1 or 2 days ahead.)

4.   Heat the sauce to a simmer. Pour it into a shallow 2-quart baking dish, or divide it among four (8 ounce) gratin dishes (about 1-inch deep and 5-inches in diameter) and place them on a baking sheet. Break the eggs one at a time into a cup and slip into the hot sauce. Top with the cheese.

5.   Bake just until whites are set, cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve at once with the toast.

Makes 4 servings

About "The Good Egg"

On the menus of the country's finest restaurants from San Francisco to New York, the egg has made a triumphant return. Classic egg dishes such as Caesar salad, spaghetti carbonara, omelets, frittatas, and crême brulé are back. At home, cooks are beginning to discover what experts have always known: when you have an egg, you can make a perfect meal. In a well-timed major work, Marie Simmons, a winner of both the James Beard and Julia Child cookbook awards, turns her expertise to the indispensable egg, pairing it with scores of vibrant flavors. There are plenty of standbys, such as Mom's Eggnog, Lemon Chiffon Tort, and Popovers. But Simmons also provides hundreds of exciting new ideas, including Eggs Baked in Fresh Tomato Salsa with Melted Cheese; Green Bean, Egg, and Mint Salad; Fresh Fig and Prosciutto Frittata, and Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cake. Brimming with informative sidebars, The Good Egg is the ultimate word on a subject long overdue for serious attention.