Recreating my Favorite Brunch Food
The Smith was one of my absolute favorite brunch spots in New York City. With its lively atmosphere, bright skylights (the Midtown location) and free drinks with Sunday brunch, I couldn't help taking every new visitor I had to the city there.
After many visits, I've managed to try almost everything on the brunch menu and my favorites are the decadent Vanilla Bean French Toast, rich Glazed Donuts with warm chocolate dip, and my absolute favorite - the savory Sicilian Baked Eggs. I love the beautiful combination of the spicy tomato sauce with the slightly runny poached eggs and burrata cheese. With the spinach and artichokes, I feel so much "healthier" eating this than any other item on the brunch menu.
I decided to try my hand at making a simple version at home. I wanted to make something quick and easy. The great thing about this recipe is you can approximate and make a lot of adjustments to your liking! For the vegetables I've used fresh/frozen spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, peppers or basically anything I have on hand. In today's version I've used frozen spinach and minced garlic. I use cottage cheese instead of burrata because its low fat and high protein! I've made this recipe so many times now for brunch and everyone in my family has loved it!
Prep Time ~10 minutes
Cook Time ~20 minutes
Makes 1 serving
Ingredients
The Smith was one of my absolute favorite brunch spots in New York City. With its lively atmosphere, bright skylights (the Midtown location) and free drinks with Sunday brunch, I couldn't help taking every new visitor I had to the city there.
After many visits, I've managed to try almost everything on the brunch menu and my favorites are the decadent Vanilla Bean French Toast, rich Glazed Donuts with warm chocolate dip, and my absolute favorite - the savory Sicilian Baked Eggs. I love the beautiful combination of the spicy tomato sauce with the slightly runny poached eggs and burrata cheese. With the spinach and artichokes, I feel so much "healthier" eating this than any other item on the brunch menu.
I decided to try my hand at making a simple version at home. I wanted to make something quick and easy. The great thing about this recipe is you can approximate and make a lot of adjustments to your liking! For the vegetables I've used fresh/frozen spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, peppers or basically anything I have on hand. In today's version I've used frozen spinach and minced garlic. I use cottage cheese instead of burrata because its low fat and high protein! I've made this recipe so many times now for brunch and everyone in my family has loved it!
Prep Time ~10 minutes
Cook Time ~20 minutes
Makes 1 serving
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- ~1 cup jarred tomato pasta sauce (I used Tomato Basil sauce)
- ~3/4 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 teaspoons cottage cheese
- 1/4 cup frozen spinach
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 eggs
- sprinkle of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add the minced garlic and sautee for ~1 minute until it becomes fragrant and starts to become transparent.
- In a separate bowl mix the pasta sauce and chili powder.
- Quickly defrost the spinach for ~30 seconds and add to the skillet. This is when you can add any other vegetables you like. Stir-fry everything until the vegetables look cooked through.
- Spread the vegetables in the pan and pour the tomato sauce evenly over to cover the surface area of pan.
- Immediately make two small ditches in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack your eggs into them. Drop teaspoons of the cottage cheese around the eggs in the sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Reduce the heat to simmer and cover with a lid. It will take about 10 minutes for the eggs to poach.
Enjoy!
