Eggs in Purgatory Recipe
Makes:
2 servings
Purgatory, here, is a buttery tomato sauce with a little crushed red pepper for heat. It’s a great foil for the eggs you scramble into it. Don’t make the sauce hellishly hot.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- Coarse salt
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 (14.5-oz) can plum tomatoes
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Crushed red pepper
- 4 large eggs
- Farm bread or semolina bread, for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
- Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until the onion is translucent and the edges are turning golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so, until fragrant. Chop or crush the tomatoes and add them, with their juice, to the skillet. Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to maintain an active simmer, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened.
- Turn the heat back up to medium and crack the eggs into the tomato sauce, spacing them evenly. Season with salt and pepper. As the whites set, nudge them with a wooden spoon, letting the uncooked whites run into the sauce. Leave the yolks alone for now. Once the whites pillow up in the sauce, give everything a stir, to scramble the yolks in lightly.
- Slice the bread. Toast it if you care to, and put a slice or two each on two plates. Spoon the eggs and sauce over the bread and serve immediately.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food
team.
Made it this morning. Substituted in a bit of olive oil for some of the butter. Served it up on split toasted ciabatta rolls rubbed with garlic. Pretty much perfect. Pic here - http://nincha.com/image/78812
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It is a great way to use up leftover tomato sauce.
this recipe is terrific! i also have seen it in other forms, like eggs in hell. i varied the recipe to use salsa instead of the canned tomatoes, and added some red bell peppers to the salsa. it's great. good for a light dinner or a brunch. and rather addicting!
ChefBill, the way they give this recipe, it IS shakshuka. It's not a variation, thereof. Plenty of foods we eat have zip to do with Africa, particularly the ones that don't grow there.
This is one of my favorite recipes, and I would suggest you include buffalo mozzarella, and parmigano reggiano, DO NOT scramble the yolks but rather put the entire pan under the broiler (to melt the parmigan and mozza and finish the tops of your eggs), I also like to cook the pepper in the fat first and I use olive oil rather than butter, to honor this incarnation's Italian roots.
No need to...+READ
This is one of my favorite recipes, and I would suggest you include buffalo mozzarella, and parmigano reggiano, DO NOT scramble the yolks but rather put the entire pan under the broiler (to melt the parmigan and mozza and finish the tops of your eggs), I also like to cook the pepper in the fat first and I use olive oil rather than butter, to honor this incarnation's Italian roots.
No need to attempt to claim it as middle eastern cuisine, once a dish is modified it becomes part of another cuisine. Otherwise, we would all be eating African cuisine.-COLLAPSE
I love eggs in purgatory. We follow a recipe from Mario Batali's Holiday Food cookbook which uses slight different ingredients (basil and cheese, for example) and is not served over bread.
Pictures here:
http://menuinprogress.blogspot.com/2007/11/eggs-in-purgatory.html
For the record, "eggs in purgatory" is actually called "Shakshuka" in the middle east. The word comes from the root "L'kashkesh", which means "to scramble." Traditionally, this dish is made in a personal castiron pan; the tomato sauce is heavy on crushed pepper and onions; and the eggs are cracked right into the pan as the sauce simmers, then allowed to partly poach, and served very runny so that...+READ
For the record, "eggs in purgatory" is actually called "Shakshuka" in the middle east. The word comes from the root "L'kashkesh", which means "to scramble." Traditionally, this dish is made in a personal castiron pan; the tomato sauce is heavy on crushed pepper and onions; and the eggs are cracked right into the pan as the sauce simmers, then allowed to partly poach, and served very runny so that the egg oozes into the sauce, creating the creamy texture mentioned here. Some (like myself) prefer the dish with scrambled eggs; to do this, I follow the instructions above, but once the eggs have started to solidify underneath, I begin spearing them with a fork, and eventually stiring the par-poached eggs around in the sauce. When done right, some of the egg remains in chunks, and some melts into the sauce.
Either way, it's a classic middle-eastern food, and can be enjoyed in a variety of other ways as well (including with chunks of meat or sausage, redd or green peppers, mushrooms, and more).-COLLAPSE
This is my husband's signature brunch dish...it gets rave reviews every time.
I made this yesterday, using a can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes which I had not had before. It was an awesome recipe! Next time, I would cut down a tad on the butter but this was a huge hit...had for lunch yesterday...and breakfast today!!
nice try to make will come back
andy- This recipe from TASTY is one that I make all the time for dinner--crack the eggs right into the sauce or into a small cup (just in case you get a little shell in there) and dump them in. Once the whites are set and opaque, stir the whole thing to break up the yolks and let them cook as much as you like. I just stir and let them scramble for about a minute--they don't set up, but stay...+READ
andy- This recipe from TASTY is one that I make all the time for dinner--crack the eggs right into the sauce or into a small cup (just in case you get a little shell in there) and dump them in. Once the whites are set and opaque, stir the whole thing to break up the yolks and let them cook as much as you like. I just stir and let them scramble for about a minute--they don't set up, but stay deliciously runny. I serve this over a slice of toasted pain au levain that's been drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic, and a salad on the side.-COLLAPSE
Sounds great!
The description of the egg scrambling technique is a little unclear. If you could clarify a little further I would love it. Are we stirring up half-poached eggs, or what? How do we leave the yolks alone while stirring the whites?
Also, should eggs be cracked directly into the sauce?