Spanish-style baked eggs

For some reason, I woke up this morning with a craving for this dish. Laura usually makes breakfast but she was out delivering cakes this morning and so I immediately set to it.

I have previously made a Moroccan meatball dish that involves baking eggs in the sauce, so this was just a simple variation of that dish.

If you fancy something with a little more oomph, you could use hot chilli powder (or better yet chopped chillis) instead of paprika and you could add some sliced chorizo at the beginning if you are a voracious meat-eater. I didn't have any this morning, or I would have done so.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
a generous glug of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp paprika
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil or 1tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp tomato puree
salt and pepper, to taste
4 eggs
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach, washed

Serves 4

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C. Prep the onion and garlic.

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan. Gently fry the onion (and chorizo, if using) for 5 mins, then increase the heat, add the garlic and paprika and fry for a further minute.

2. Pour in the balsamic and reduce down over a high heat, then add the tomatoes, basil and puree.

3. Reduce down for about 15 mins or until your sauce is nice and thick. Add salt and pepper according to your taste.

4. Line 4 shallow earthenware dishes or ramekins with spinach leaves, layering them in a spiral effect, and pour in the sauce. Make a well in the centre using a soup/tablespoon and break an egg into the middle of each dish. Be careful not to split the yolks as the best thing about this dish is a runny yolk. Bake on the middle shelf of your preheated oven for approx. 8 mins or until the egg whites have almost set. They will continue to cook for a while when they are out of the oven.

5. Serve with warm pitta or a nice crusty roll for some serious dunkage! (see below)