Washington - The combination of orange and mint sets this recipe apart from other eggs-in-tomatoes dishes you might have tried. The flavours seem to serve up breakfast for dinner in one neat package.
To make this vegetarian, replace the sausage with diced, sauteed eggplant.
Serve with a salad and warm flatbread for swiping the plate.
Adapted from Smashing Plates: Greek Flavors Refined, by Maria Elia (Kyle, 2013).
Baked Eggs With Sausage, Tomatoes and Mint
4 servings
Ingredients
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 ounces (2 or 3 links, or about 140g) fresh sausage
1 navel orange
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
28 ounces (about 800g) canned crushed no-salt-added tomatoes, with their juices
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 large eggs, preferably farm-fresh
2 ounces (about 60g) crumbled feta cheese (optional)
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves
Steps
Line a plate with a few layers of paper towels.
Mince the garlic.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Discard the casings from the sausage; pinch off bite-size pieces, letting them fall into the skillet as you work. Cook for about 8 minutes, until browned. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the paper towel-lined plate to drain.
Meanwhile, finely grate the zest of the orange (about 1 tablespoon).
Reduce the heat to low; stir in the garlic and cook for a minute or two, until fragrant, then add the crushed red pepper flakes, orange zest and tomato paste, stirring for a minute.
Add the tomatoes and their juices to the skillet, then the drained sausage pieces. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring a few times, to form a slightly thickened sauce. Season lightly with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too thick, squeeze in the juice from half of the orange.
Use a spoon to make 4 shallow wells in the skillet mixture. Carefully crack each egg on the counter and open one into each well. Scatter the feta around the eggs, if using. Cover and cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until the whites of the eggs are just set.
While the eggs are cooking, coarsely chop the mint.
Uncover the skillet and remove it from the heat. Scatter the mint over the eggs and sauce. Serve hot, in the skillet.
Nutrition Per serving: 270 calories, 14 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 17 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 210 mg cholesterol, 290 mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 7 g sugar
Washington Post