Recipe of the Day: Spaghetti With Fried Eggs
By MARK BITTMANThere are pasta dishes of the desperate cook, the one who has been too busy to shop or too busy to think, or who must put dinner on the table in 20 minutes. I love those kinds of recipes. This is one of them, taught to me a decade ago or so by Arthur Schwartz, who knows as much about Italian food as any native New Yorker has a right to.
Adapted from Arthur Schwartz.
In this dish, sometimes known as \'\'poor man\'s spaghetti,\'\' you fry a couple of eggs in the olive oil after removing the garlic, which is not browned but \'\'blonded\'\' (\'\'imbiondito\'\'), cooked lightly in good olive oil and then removed from it. Tossed with the pasta, the eggs and oil create a creamy, delicious sauce.
Ingredients
- Salt
- 1/2 pound thin spaghetti
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or lard
- 2 large cloves garlic, lightly smashed and peeled
- 4 eggs
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese, optional
Method
- 1. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Start the sauce in the next step, and start cooking the pasta when the water boils.
- 2. Combine garlic and 4 tablespoons of the oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Cook the garlic, pressing it into the oil occasionally to release its flavor; it should barely color on both sides. Remove the garlic, and add the remaining oil.
- 3. Fry the eggs gently in the oil, until the whites are just about set and the yolks still quite runny. Drain the pasta, and toss with the eggs and oil, breaking up the whites as you do. (The eggs will finish cooking in the heat of the pasta.) Season to taste, and serve immediately, with cheese if you like.
I saw this on the today show to, glad to know it was good. Never would have thought spaghetti and eggs together but it works.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I would never have dreamed of this combo but now I am just curious enough to need to try it!
ReplyDeleteSpaghetti.... it sounds familiar even if I rarely eat this kind of pasta.
ReplyDeleteI will pass the recipe to my wife.
I saw it too and somehow it made sense. I used to work for Arthur Schwartz and he's very serious and knowledgeable about food. I'm looking forward to trying it.
ReplyDelete