Nesting Eggs

I saw this recipe from one of my newer blog crushes, The Urban Poser, for Rosemary Spaghetti Squash Egg Nests and I immediately bookmarked it on my computer and in my brain. I have to admit that I had never even tried spaghetti squash until I stopped eating pasta but now it’s one of my favorite things. Plus, anything with eggs is a score for me. Do you like spaghetti squash? If you do, you’ll love this recipe.

The nice part about this fancy breakfast we shared with my parents recently was that most of it can be prepped or partially cooked the day before with no impact on flavor. Here’s what we had and how I cooked it –

• Sweet potato and red onion hash – baked the sweet potatoes the day before while I cooked the spaghetti squash, sauteed the onions in lard in the morning and threw in the sweet potatoes (diced) and let the flavors cook together for a while.
• Tendercrop Farms bacon – baked on a cookie sheet while I prepped the egg nests morning-of
• Spaghetti squash – cooked and pulled into strands the day before, refridgerated overnight and prepared according to the recipe the morning-of
• Espresso with maple syrup
• Champagne with blood orange wedges

Now onto the Urban Poser’s recipe, with a few notes from me in italics

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cooked spaghetti squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2-3 medium sized garlic cloves, finely minced
• 2 medium sized shallots finely minced (I didn’t have any so I omitted it)
• 2 Tbls olive oil (or hot bacon fat from the bacon I was cooking :)
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tlbs fresh rosemary finely chopped
• 1 tsp or more salt
• 5 Tbls finely ground almond four (more or less, depending on the wateriness of the squash) (forgot about this part and did not include haha)
• cracked pepper to taste

Directions:

Cooking the squash:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the squash in half and clean out the seeds. Place the halves, cut side down in a large baking dish with about 1/4 inch of water at the bottom of of the dish. How long to cook the squash will depend on it’s size and season. Watch it closely while cooking, or it could become too watery. Put the squash in the oven for about 15 min. After 15 min take it out and check the spaghetti like fibers. After the first initial 15 min, continue cooking it in 10 min increments or less, checking often. You know it’s ready when the strands just begin to pull apart. The squash should be very ‘al dente’, but cooked enough to be able to separate the strands.

Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Using a fork, pull out the spaghetti like strands. Set aside in a bowl. Can be kept in an air tight container, in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Making the nests:

Set the oven to broil.

In a cast iron (or oven safe) skillet…over medium heat, cook the garlic and shallots in the oil. These should fry slowly till they are lightly browned. Careful not to burn them. Scoop them out of the pan and set aside to drain on a paper towel. Wipe out the skillet with another paper towel.

In a large bowl combine the squash, garlic, shallots, egg, rosemary, salt and almond flour. Mix well. *I guess I wasn’t paying attention and I didn’t include the egg or the almond meal. They came out amazing but I will certainly try them with all the recommended ingredients next time

Heat the skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add a little oil (or choice of fat) for frying. Place a half cup mound of the spaghetti squash mixture into the skillet. Working quickly, use a spoon to press and push the center of the mound, making about a 1 inch round opening. It should be slightly larger than an egg yolk.

Crack the egg into the opening. Immediately widen the circle as needed to get the egg to nestle down into the squash. If the nest seems too loose, use a spatula to draw the sides in a bit. Sometimes a little egg white over flows. This is fine. I just pull the white off from the outside of the nest as it cooks. Assemble one nest at a time(including adding the egg), fitting about 4 nests into an average sized cast iron pan. Continue to cook the nests until the bottom becomes crisp (but not burned). The yolks should still be mostly uncooked.

Transfer the skillet to the top rack under the broiler. Broil for for 2 1/2 to 3 min, depending on how you like your yolks. Keep a close eye on it. keep in mind that the yolk will continue to cook slightly after it is removed from the oven.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt and cracked pepper. Transfer to a plate and serve. I find that a very thin metal spatula works best for transferring these.

Alternatively you could cook the nests in a pan then transfer to a cookie sheet. Then cook the remaining nests, transfer those to the cookie sheet and broil all of them a the same time. This would work great if you were making a double recipe for a crowd.

*This is how I cooked mine and made 8 to broil at once so we could sit to eat together. Worked GREAT!

Related articles

• Learn to Cook: Winter Squash (wholefoodsmarket.com)