Eggs in Purgatory
Poached eggs, spicy tomato-basil sauce, runny yolk and crusty bread.
Maui's an app that plans a whole week of dinners like this one. See how it works ↓
Crack each egg into its own ramekin first. Slipping a pre-cracked egg into the sauce gives you intact yolks and round whites every time. Cracking eggs directly into the pan splits about 1 in 4 yolks, and a broken yolk in spicy tomato becomes a marbled mess instead of the runny-yolk-on-the-bread payoff. Pre-cracking takes 10 extra seconds and saves the whole dish.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 2 servings.
- 4large eggscracked into a ramekin one at a time when ready to add
- 14 ozcrushed tomatoes (San Marzano preferred)
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 smallshallotminced
- 3garlic clovesthinly sliced
- 1 tspCalabrian chili paste (or red pepper flake)
- ¼ cupfresh basiltorn
- ¼ cupgrated parmesan
- 4 slicescrusty sourdough breadthick slices, toasted
- ¾ tspkosher salt
- ½ tspfreshly ground black pepper
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 540calories
- 24gprotein
- 52gcarbs
- 26gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Crack each egg into its own small ramekin or cup - slipping pre-cracked eggs in gently is the trick to whole, intact yolks.
- Slice garlic thin. Mince shallot. Tear basil.
- Toast bread - get it ready while the sauce simmers so it's hot when the eggs come off.
Soffritto
Warm olive oil in the skillet over medium. Add shallot, cook 2 min until soft. Add sliced garlic and Calabrian chili paste, stir 30 sec until everything smells like garlic-chili oil and just starts to color.
2 min · hands onBuild sauce
Pour in the crushed tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Add salt and black pepper. Simmer 8-10 min, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens enough that a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a brief trail.
9 min · hands offPoach eggs
Use the back of a spoon to make 4 little wells in the sauce. Slip one egg from its ramekin into each well. Season the egg tops with a tiny pinch of salt. Cover. Cook 4-6 min - pull the lid at 4 min to check. Whites should be set, yolks still jiggly when you tap the pan. Pull off the heat the moment they look right; carry-over cooking is real.
5 min · hands onFinish and plate
Scatter basil and parm over the top. Spoon eggs and sauce into shallow bowls. Tuck toast around the edges. Eat immediately - the yolk is the sauce now.
1 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
Brown 8 oz chicken sausage in the pan before the garlic, push to one side, build the sauce around it. Adds about 8 minutes.
Skip the eggs, fold a drained can of cannellini into the sauce, simmer 3 min - now it's a quick shakshuka cousin.
Cook 1/2 cup quick polenta in 2 cups water and 1 tbsp butter - spoon eggs and sauce over. Adds about 15 minutes.
Toast sourdough, rub with a halved garlic clove, drizzle olive oil. Adds about 5 minutes.
What keeps
The runny yolk IS the dish - reheating turns it solid and rubbery. Tomato sauce CAN be made ahead (3 days fridge) and reheated to poach fresh eggs into.
So: sauce is batch-friendly, eggs are fresh_only.
Meet Maui,
the three-legged cat
who plans your dinner.
Think of her as a sous chef for your whole table. She plans dinner everyone will look forward to - built around your schedule and working in everyone's taste and dietary restrictions. That's the mental load of dinner, off your plate.
Join The WaitlistCurrently in closed beta on iPhone.
