Put an Egg on It!

Are you burning out on what to fix ?
Here in Italy, many of us are still out of work and at home cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner. Both my husband and I have been vaccinated now, He gets his second pfzier next week.
But work won’t start for me until Italy opens up to Americans. I am doing my weeklong custom programs, which will start in late September for one group and in November for another group, both in Sicily.

Back to the kitchen!!! When I am out of ideas I am inspired by ingredients. If I am tired of cooking, I look at my leftovers. If I don’t want to simply reheat leftovers, I look for a way to transform them. The answer is often an EGG.

 

I am blessed to have a great farmer’s market twice weekly where I can pick up fresh seasonal vegetables and eggs. Often the eggs come wrapped in the pages of a newspaper of the weekly magazines.

This is the season of zucchini, fava beans, artichokes and asparagus.

Alone they can be used a so many ways, but once a year I make the local vegetable stew called Garmugia. We add pancetta to out version, in the area around Lucca they do it with a light veal ragu.

It is just as delicious make vegetarian and down in Maremma they do one with added chili pepper, garlic and spring onions. The also put an egg on it.

I make the light ministrone called Acquapazza, Crazy Water. That is also served in an egg poached in each bowl of soup.

We also have access to delicious farm eggs and finishing the soup or stew with grated parmigiano is pure heaven.

In a recent online zoom class, we made Garmugia. It’s hard to make a tiny version so I had a large amount of leftovers.

I was inspired by the version from Maremma called Scafata and decided to cook an egg in the pan with the stew when I was reheating it.

 

You can also make this with leftover peas or other vegetables such as sauteed greens.

We don’t have an orto any longer, the small vegetable gardens most Italians have. Just the two of us could eat even what one zucchini plant gave off in a season, so we planted asparagus which is more unusual to have. In the area we know where we can also find wild asparagus as well. Asparagus is another dish that does well with an egg on it. Often, in season, it is offered on menus in Florence as well. There is a lovely version served with shaved or grated parmigiano cheese on top to finish as well. I took this photo and then added the parmigiano.

Andrea’s mom used to make a simple tomato risotto and also enriched it with simply putting an egg yolk on top of the risotto when serving and you stirred it in with some parmigiano as well to enrich the dish.

Eggs have always been an easy protein for Italians. They don’t eat eggs for breakfast, but rather at meal times.  A trattoria may offer an omelet as a light lunch option. It is more like a simple fritta, rolled and then a slice cut open in then top and parmigiano added. The inside of the omelet can be a little soft, so the cheese blends with the soft egg, creating a sauce. This is sort of old school, so probably harder to find now. When I arrived in the early 80’s it was common.

Have you had the Uova in Purgatorio? The Italian version of Huevos Rancheros. Make a spicy tomato sauce with garlic, olive oil and chili pepper. When the tomatoes are broken down and thickened, drop and egg per person in the tomato sauce and cover the pan and let cook.

When in doubt, I always boil an egg. At local wine bars, you often find a basket of hard-boiled eggs with a salt shaker sitting next to it. In Italy, you don’t drink without eating something and an egg is simple. Customers crack the shell and then sprinkle with salt each bite!

Another great twist for an egg is to hard boil it and serve with salsa verde. This is a recipe from my local wine bar in Florence, the Casa del Vino. You can order one of “Gianni’s Eggs” and he will take one of the eggs from the basket on the counter and make this for you, the simple addition of salsa verde and a drizzle of Balsamico is pure genius!

Another example is the pizza!!!

Most dishes in the international kitchen, served with an egg on it, are called Alla Bismark. Named for Conte Bismark, a German politian from the 1800’s who adored eating eggs. Apparently even 12 at a single meal!

I must say, you can really taste the difference in a good farm egg. In my pastry making, I search out the best I can buy as the flavor comes through. The same for when you dress up a dish with an egg, get the best you can. Hopefully corn fed chickens.

Don’t forget the fabulous Carbonara sauce for pasta. The Italian way with “bacon and eggs”. The traditional pork is to use guanciale from the town of Amatrice, but a good cured pancetta works as well. Here in Italy, they don’t use bacon. You may find smoked pork products up north.

A while back, pre-Covid, a restaurant called Nu Ovo opened in a hotel downtown Florence, featuring an “egg-centric” menu. They were inspired by the American brunch, Ovo is how Florentines pronounce egg in the local “dialect” in Italian it is written uovo.

Let’s not forget the original Tira Mi Su for Italians…. Zabaione! A simple egg whipped with sugar for children, or the marsala spiked version for adults. I rarely see it offered in Italy. Perhaps as so many remember having it to “strengthen” then when they were sick as kids?

I adore a warm zabaione on berries for a nice dessert and berries are in season right now.

What do you put an egg on?

Share your recipes!