Monday, July 27, 2009

Dinner tonight: Eggs in the 10th Circle of Hell


Tonight I had a (mostly) local dinner. My salad featured greens from Tree and Leaf Farm in Virginia, along with cherry tomatoes from Richfield Farm in Maryland, currants from Quaker Valley Farm in—you guessed it—Pennsylvania, and sunflower seeds from, well, Giant. What can I say—I really love sunflower seeds in salads. And hey, I just checked, and turns out they are from Connecticut!

I also made Eggs in Purgatory for the second time in a couple of weeks. Last time I was very lazy and used bottled sauce (Rao's Homemade Arrabiata, which I think is quite good) and a Thomas' English muffin. This time I made the sauce from scratch using this really simple recipe from smitten kitchen.

Everything I used was local, except for the crushed tomatoes themselves and the glug of red wine I poured in, which was accidentally quite generous. And, of course, the spices and oil. I used leftover Atwater's bread from brunch on Saturday, eggs from Groff's Content Farm, and garlic from Tree and Leaf. I am so glad garlic is back at the farmers markets. All winter I was so distressed by the sad state of garlic at both Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, and I could not wait until the summer when I could purchase decent garlic.

Cooking tip of the day: When you crack the eggs into your nicely reduced sauce, don't wander away and start catching up on blogs. You will overcook your eggs, which is exactly what I did last time I made Eggs in Purgatory too. This is why I have upgraded them to the 10th Circle of Hell, better known as the hell of hard, chalky yolks instead of nice, runny yolks. Still, it was a good meal, and very quick to throw together on a weeknight.

4 comments:

  1. Runny yolks are one of life's pleasures, for sure.

    I have to try that quick tomato sauce recipe--love Smitten Kitchen. It made me think of my go-to quick tomato sauce recipe--Marcella Hazan's tomato onion butter sauce--found on many blogs, etc., here is one: http://www.dcfoodies.com/2008/12/marcella-hazans.html
    I use 4 T butter instead of 5, and sometimes I use olive oil or part butter, part oil. It's really so simple and good.

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  2. Thanks Marianne! It's always good to have simple tomato sauces at hand. So many uses...:)

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