Delicious as it may be, the dish known in most of the world as Eggs Florentine —eggs sitting on a bed of spinach braised in butter, topped with mornay sauce and shirred in a hot oven— is, in fact, not Italian but a French invention. Some say it was invented by the venerable G.A. Escoffier. (If you care to look it up, it’s Recipe No. 400 in the Guide Culinaire.) As many of you probably know, the term “Florentine” is commonly used in French cuisine to denote a dish in which spinach features.
The real Eggs Florentine, or Uova alla fiorentina, as actually eaten in Florence, is rather another thing according to Florentine food historian and cookbook author Giuliano Bugialli. As befits Tuscan cooking, it’s rather simpler (and less creamy) than Escoffier’s dish, but very satisfying: nothing more than eggs poached or shirred on a bed of spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil, in the in padella style we’ve featured so often before.
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
- 500g (1 lb) spinach, trimmed of its stems and well washed
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 4-6 eggs
Directions
Prepare and sauté the spinach in garlic and olive oil in a large braising pan, following the recipe for spinaci ripassati in padella.
After the spinach has sautéed for a minute or two, make little wells in the spinach and gingerly drop an egg into each well. Cover the cover the pan and let the eggs cook over very gentle heat until done to your liking—if you’re like me, until the whites are just cooked and the yolk still runny.
Serve immediately, with some crusty bread and some crisp white wine.
Notes on Eggs Florentine
For a more elegant alternative, as pictured in this post, you can serve your Eggs Florentine in individually baked ramekins. Oil the bottom of each ramekin, prepare a bed of sautéed spinach in each, leaving a little well in the middle of each one. Then drop one egg into the middle of each ramekin. Bake in a hot 200C/400F oven until the eggs are done to your liking.
This is a great dish for weekday evenings when you don’t have time to spare, as it only takes about 20 minutes to make.
Ingredients
- 500g (1 lb) spinach, trimmed of its stems and well washed
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 4-6 eggs
Instructions
- Prepare and sauté the spinach in garlic and olive oil in a large braising pan, following the recipe for spinaci ripassati in padella.
- After the spinach has sautéed for a minute or two, make little wells in the spinach and gingerly drop an egg into each well. Cover the cover the pan and let the eggs cook over very gentle heat until done to your liking—if you're like me, until the whites are just cooked and the yolk still runny.
- Serve immediately, with some crusty bread and some crisp white wine.
Notes
For a more elegant alternative, as pictured in this post, you can serve your Eggs Florentine in individually baked ramekins. Oil the bottom of each ramekin, prepare a bed of sautéed spinach in each, leaving a little well in the middle of each one. Then drop one egg into the middle of each ramekin. Bake in a hot 200C/400F oven until the eggs are done to your liking.
The post Uova alla fiorentina, the Original Eggs Florentine appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.