Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

Oh hi there Green and Lean readers! I hope you haven't given up on me. I still have a few more posts up my sleeve before we hit Dec 31 so I'm not abandoning you yet. I've just been pretty slow...must be due in part to my old(er) age. Yep, that's right...as of Monday I'm no longer 30. I'm now IN MY 30's. Ick. Well actually, not ick - it's really been pretty great. So, all the birthday excitement combined with unseasonably HOT September weather has resulted in nothing new from my kitchen.

Today it was only 77 degrees (and not upper 80's). Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly NOT complaining about hot weather. I'm merely suggesting that cooking in an un-air conditioned tiny house is not palatable on warm days, and therefore this blog suffers. But the slight respite from the heat today gave me the motivation I needed to go for an extra long walk and make a green and lean dinner.

I have to talk a little bit now about tomato sauce - which is one of my favorite things to eat in the fall. Homemade tomato sauce is really super easy and SO much better for you than those jars in the store loaded with sodium, sugar, artificial flavorings, and preservatives. I have a couple great recipes for tomato sauce that I'll share when it's cool enough to turn on the oven (yes, I'm such a tease!). In the meantime, tonight I used some frozen sauce I'd made last year. It's filled with lots of garlic, crushed red pepper, and basil - pretty traditional yet still tastes fresh from the garden because I used in-season tomatoes before freezing.

Also, just because I love tomato sauce, it doesn't mean I love pasta. In fact, I'm really lukewarm on pasta. Bread and I, however, have a mad passionate love affair. So, I usually just like to soak up my fresh tomato sauce with bread. Tonight I needed some protein to go with my tomatoes and bread....and eggs seemed the perfect solution. I poached my egg right in the little pot of simmering tomato sauce - it's an ingenious way to cook up a tasty little dinner if I do say so myself.

The finished dish includes the following components: grilled ciabatta bread, fresh spinach that wilts as soon as the hot sauce hits it, rich and delicious homemade tomato sauce, a poached egg, and grilled zucchini. And to top it all off, a light dusting of finely grated parmesan cheese - or as Zack calls it, "angel hair."

Which reminds me of my favorite exchange with Zack on Easter morning when we made our breakfast strata and I used my Microplane to finely grate some parm:

Zack: It looks like angel hair.

Me: No, I think it looks like rabbit fur [because it was Easter, duh]

Zack: Don't say that! It's like we killed the Easter Bunny!

Me: Oh, you're OK scalping an angel, but you can't touch the Easter Bunny?

Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce, preferably homemade

Eggs, 1 or 2 per person

Grilled bread

Fresh Spinach

Parmesan cheese

Heat the sauce in a pot on the stove. When simmering, crack an egg into the sauce and cover and cook for 4-6 minutes, until your desired doneness. Put grilled bread in a shallow bowl or on a plate, top with a handful of fresh spinach, then place poached egg on top and ladle the hot sauce over the whole plate. Dust with parm and serve with grilled zucchini and chilled rose wine.

Update: I just googled "eggs poached in tomato sauce" and I found this fabulous post by one of my favorite food blogs - Smitten Kitchen - on the same topic. I highly recommend you look at her gorgeous photos and get inspired to make this meal for yourself!