I made this over the weekend when The Latin Lover, The Middle Son and The Unbound Reader were here. It was glorious…the eggs were good, too!. This recipe comes from Epicurious.com, where it originally appeared back in November 2013. I get a daily email from them, “Epicurious: Cook this Now”. I like it, because they give a slew of recipe options to pick and choose from. Check it out. It’s a worthwhile read. That’s where I saw the recipe, but truth be told, the original recipe is from Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, in their book, Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking. It’s a great book, you might want to check that out, too.
About the recipe…first, as you probably know by now, The Goddess absolutely adores eggs. I think she’s mentioned that a time or three. They are the food of the Gods (and Goddess). Those little orbs of goodness are versatile, good anytime of the day, quick to prepare and damn…they just taste good. I saw the picture and thought they looked tasty, but it was the method of cooking that caught my eye. I’m always harping about “hot pan, heat the oil, THEN and only then, do we add the food”. Apparently, The Goddess is spreading false information. She doesn’t want to do that. And if this recipe is any proof, this commandment isn’t always true, because this worked like a charm. 
Cold pan, cold oil (okay, room temp oil), eggs, cover and THEN heat. The Goddess is always thrilled to learn something new, particularly when she’s learning something that appears to be against conventional wisdom and turns her absolute-certainty on end.
These worked so well and were so delicious…a true gustatory delight The original recipe used dried oregano. I used fresh oregano and marjoram together. I think the dry is the way to go. The fresh, and it was fresh from the garden minutes before it hit the eggs, just didn’t have the “punch” I think we want here. I think if I were to go with fresh, I would use fresh basil or tarragon. 
I served this with simple pan-fried tomato slices (you can see them doing their magic there on the upper left corner) and some good bread…actually the bread was some leftover, re-toasted Catalan Tomato Bread from dinner. It was a nice late breakfast.
Oregano Eggs (Uova all'Origano)
- 2 tablespoons garlic infused extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly minced oregano and marjoram (combined)*
- 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
*The original used dried herbs
Pour the oil into a 12-inch non-stick skillet. (It’s easiest to just set the pan on a turned-off burner.) Swirl the olive oil around, and very gently break all the eggs to fill the pan. Be careful not to break the yolks (if you break one, don’t sweat it…life goes on). Sprinkle with the salt, pepper and herbs. Sprinkle the grated cheese over all.
Cover the skillet, and turn the flame to medium-low. Cook until the whites are set and the yolks are done to your liking, about 7 to 8 minutes (it took about 5 minutes on my gas stove) for still-runny yolks. You can gently slide the whole egg “disk” onto a platter, or just serve them from the skillet. They are delicious served over pan-fried tomato slices with good bread on the side.
Barely adapted from Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali.
A couple of things—these cooked in about 5 minutes on my gas stove. For the oil, I used garlic-infused olive oil from some Garlic Confit. As I mentioned earlier, I think next time I make these, and there will most definitely be a next time, I will opt for dried herbs.
This makes a delicious and quickly prepared supper, but placing cooked rice on a large platter and then simply sliding the “disk” of eggs over the top. Serve with a nice salad. It’s all done in under 30 minutes.
Goddess Cooks 