Eggs in a Wintry Kale and Tomato Sauce

Each Thursday, Emily Vikre (a.k.a fiveandspice) will be sharing a new way to love breakfast -- because breakfast isn't just the most important meal of the day. It's also the most awesome.

Today: A breakfast to cuddle up with.

I love shakshuka. I make it almost once a week. There are few things that warm my heart and soul like eggs poached in a cumin-y, paprika-y tomato sauce. For some reason, though, I never make the Italian version of eggs in tomato sauce, in spite of its wonderfully evocative name, “eggs in Purgatory.”

Maybe I have an unacknowledged subconscious fear of Purgatory? Maybe I just never don’t add cumin and paprika to something when that thing could have cumin and paprika.   

This week, however, cozied up inside on yet another snow day (I wish I had invested in hot cocoa stocks earlier this winter! I would have made a killing by now.), I thought, ‘actually, today I may not want cumin and paprika." My mind turned to the wonderfully simple but richly flavorful “winter tomato sauce” from Lynne Rosseto Kasper’s tome, The Splendid Table. No disrespect to Marcella and her most excellent sauce, but in midwinter, there’s just something about Lynne’s, filled as it is with niblets of vegetables and the fragrance of wintery herbs, that speaks to me more.

I decided to stew up a batch, and I added some thinly ribboned kale to make it even heartier, and stewier, and because we all add kale to everything these days, don’t we? I cracked in my eggs, cooked them until they were barely set, broke off a chunk of bread, and I feasted -- and figured the snow days can just keep coming if they want to. I have eggs in Purgatory. And I may still have time to invest in hot cocoa stocks.  

Eggs in a Wintry Kale and Tomato Sauce

Serves 4 to 8

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, peeled and minced
1 small carrot, scrubbed and minced
1 small celery stalk, minced
3 tablespoons Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, minced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
One 1-inch sprig fresh rosemary
1 to 2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bunch lacinto kale, washed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
One 28-ounce can of whole San Marzano tomatoes
Salt and pepper
4 to 8 large eggs (depending on how many each person wants to eat)
2 ounces crumbled goat cheese, for serving (optional)

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here. 

Photos by Emily Vikre