Baked Eggs with Stewed Tomatoes and Polpette

Flicking through the weekend papers I came across an article on Andrew Blake - and while the story of what happened to this high flying chef and restaurateur was interesting, what really caught my attention was one of his recipes for Baked Eggs with Stewed tomatoes and Salsiccia.

The idea is very simple - a slow stew of onion, garlic and tomatoes to which roughly broken pieces of cooked Italian sausage are added. This mix is then placed in an oven proof dish and then topped with eggs - it goes into the oven until the eggs just set.

It's the type of dish that you just know will taste great and I so I set about creating my own version for the long weekend.



I've replaced the sausage with meatballs and the base of stewed tomatoes include carrots, celery, capsicum (bell pepper), rosemary and parsley. Once the stew has cooked for about 30 minutes I add the cooked meatballs. I then placed this mixture into individual sized oven-proof dishes and bake at 160°C/320°F for another 30-45 minutes or until the mixture has reduced.

Form indentations in the mixture and crack an egg into each dish. Put them back in the oven until the whites have just set - one of the aspects of this dish I especially love are those runny eggs.

Crusty bread is mandatory!