I was in Melbourne last month for work and my brother in law said I had to go to Hardware Societe. Unfortunately when I got there, I couldn’t get a table or even the attention of a waiter to start the process of getting a table. I gave up on breakfast that morning but I never gave up on the idea of baked eggs and this weekend I did two variations, both with pulses in a tomato based sauce finished with eggs baked on top. This is a seriously hearty breakfast that I plan on eating much more often, although it would make sense to make up the sauce the night before to save time. I’m treating this as more of an amazing new concept than a specific recipe and I will use whatever is in season – I chucked some zucchini and pumpkin into one of my versions too and will be trying one with beans soon.
Baked eggs with lentils
- 1 cup cooked lentils (or canned)
- 1 1/2 cups tomato passata or blended tinned tomatoes or plain pasta sauce
- 1/2 brown onion
- 1 carrot, peeled
- 1 stick celery
- 1 red or yellow capsicum (pepper)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon – I love a hint of cinnamon with lentils!
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh herbs – any of thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 egg per person
- Finely dice onion, carrot, celery, capsicum, garlic. Sautee over medium heat in a dash of olive oil till soft, around 5 minutes.
- Add cinnamon, paprika, fresh herbs, tomato passata and lentils. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture gets so dry it sticks, add a dash of water.
- Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Spoon sauce into a casserole dish or individual servings. I’ve been eying off a set of individual casseroles like these for a while but don’t have any yet, so I used large soup mugs. Use a spoon to make an egg sized depression in the sauce for each serve and crack in an egg. Cover the dish (foil works) and bake until the egg is cooked right. Mine took about 15 minutes in a hot oven. I served with a little flat leaf parsley and grated parmesan and of course toast fingers are an obvious match for creamy egg yolk…
My second version replaced the lentils with chickpeas, and I used up a little leftover pasta dough to make a few noodles for the sauce. I did this one in a single casserole. Soooo good!
