Monday 15 April 2013

Delicious Deconstruction

Pane, Spinaci, Ouva & Pomodorini Croccante al Forno
Crispy Bread, Spinach, Egg & Tomato Bake


What do you do with a couple of stale, rye-bread rolls- turn them into bread-crumbs? Nah- they would taste a little to "particular" to be of use in that way. Throw them away? Are you serious?!? How long have we known each other now, huh? Me, throw food away? Never in a million years!

Of course, I could have just toasted them and made a yummy scrambled egg on toast for example, or nice boiled egg sandwich. Or I could have done this and transform these two humble rolls into a delicious dinner. And I did! And this is how!


Spinach and egg are a great combination-but I have to have some bread to enjoy them- so this seemed to be a great, logical solution! This was a very easy and quick little dish to make and I began with the spinach, which I popped into a frying pan with a little water and cranked up the heat. Whilst it came up to the boil, I turned on the oven to full power to have it nice and hot and ready to goo as soon as I had everything put together... which wouldn't take long!

Soon the water in the pan was boiling, so I sprinkled the spinach with salt, pepper and nutmeg and stirred it through and within 1-2 minutes it had wilted down and was a lovely rich, dark green... that was easy! I drained off the excess water, returned the pan to the heat and added a light drizzle of oil and just a little finely chopped garlic. I sautéed the spinach for a minute or two to get it nicely glazed and the garlic cooked, then set it to one side to cool.

I then tore up my rolls into bite-sized pieces and cut 2-3 cherry tomatoes into quarters. I arranged the bread, spinach and tomatoes in a baking dish, making sure they were nice and evenly spread. Then I took a couple of eggs, broke them into a bowl and stirred them through briefly with a fork- just enough to break the yolks and get them mixed-up but not whisked and blended together- I thought it would be nicer to have the distinct different flavors of the whites and yolks, rather than to have the beaten-together flavor you would have in an omelette say. 


I poured the egg here and there over the bread, spinach and tomatoes and then seasoned it with salt, pepper and again a little nutmeg. I then sprinkled everything lightly with grated cheese- in this case a little more of the smoked Scamorza I am so fond of at the moment and popped it into the oven for 9-10 minutes to bake and 1-2 minutes under the broiler to brown. You can of course use any other cheese you might prefer- this is easy stuff and these are familiar flavors- so no worries!

As soon as the cheese and the bread were nicely toasted and brown, out it came and off to the dining table it went! The egg whites were still moist, the yolk had set, the bread had crisped up and the tomatoes were hot and delicious! Dont'cha just love making good use of left-overs? Me too!

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