Ripe and Ready

~Sunday, August 12, 2012

While helping prepare dinner at my parent’s house last night, I mentioned to my mom that I had really ripe tomatoes at home, and she said, “You know what those would be good for, don’t you?”  No…tell me!  (My mind doesn’t work like hers does when it comes to food.  If we were talking a great pair of tomato red shoes in a store window it would be a different story and I’d be thinking of all the different jeans I could wear them with!) 

This recipe is similar to the Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce recipe in my book, You Never Grow Old at the Dinner Table:

Ingredients (Serves 4)

2  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup white onion, finely chopped

2  medium-sized, extra ripe tomatoes, finely chopped

2  tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped

4  eggs

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Using a sauté/simmer pan (with a lid), heat the olive oil over a medium-high flame.  Add the onion and sauté until golden, about 10 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, and bring to a simmer, (let water evaporate until it becomes the consistency of tomato sauce).  Stir in the basil; create four spaces in the pan to drop cracked eggs into.  Lower heat to a simmer; cover and poach the eggs until desired doneness.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

These eggs are delicious served over toasted slices of artisan bread for dinner.  Yes, dinner!  (Italians do things differently:  We eat eggs for dinner, instead of breakfast; and eat our dinner salad at the end of our main meal, instead of the usual start of a meal.)