A Pile of Unused Basil Led Me to My New Favorite Scrambled Eggs.
Summer weather encourages me to start my day with fruit, smoothies or soft poached eggs, but now that the weather is getting cooler, I’m returning to the classic buttery scrambled eggs. Crispy, chewy edges and a runny yolk never need complementing, but since eggs enhance almost everything, you can use them to complement other ingredients. Thus Caprese eggs were born.
This week I had a major run-in with a ridiculous amount of basil. As with my celery woes , I often only need a little bit of basil for a given recipe. Unfortunately, the grocery store only sells whole plants or large plastic containers of produce. I needed an extra dish to handle the excess. Something that could use a huge amount of fresh basil, about a cup’s worth, without making me feel like a cow grazing in a field. So, I made Caprese eggs.
Scrambled eggs Caprese is an offshoot of the refreshing cold Caprese salad – a mixture of raw tomatoes, fresh mozzarella di bufala and basil. I use the basic ingredients, but flip the whole thing over high heat to create a tempting frico cheese , and the tomatoes pop. It’s not the prettiest dish (especially after one of my yolks broke), but if the flavor is right, appearance doesn’t matter.
How to cook caprese eggs
To make caprese eggs, add about a half tablespoon of oil to a frying pan and place over medium-low heat. Add a large handful of basil and sauté for 30 seconds. I had a cup full of loosely packed leaves and they fell off quickly. Sprinkle with some low-moisture shredded mozzarella to start forming the frico crust. Today I only had cheese. It’s not buffalo mozzarella, but you do what you gotta do. Even if I had fresh cheese, it is difficult to cook because it contains so much water. If you don’t have low-moisture mozzarella, try choosing something drier, like Parmesan.
Once it starts to melt and sizzle, arrange the ripe tomato slices and crack two eggs on top. I added a little more oil around the edges of the pan and a pinch of salt all over the eggs before turning the mixture over. Boil the eggs to your desired doneness.
The finished dish is brightly colored, filled with the sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes and the bright licorice of the basil. I love getting a forkful of stretchy, slightly crunchy cheese along with some wilted basil. It has some of the textural qualities of spinach, but is more holistic, so the flavor brings more benefits to the dish as a whole. The only thing I recommend adding is a piece of crispy toast spread with butter to bring in the last bits of summer.