Portobello Mushroom Cap with Baked Egg

I will tell you a secret.  While I really enjoy cooking for friends and family, and sharing my love of food with them, sometimes my favorite thing to do is cook for me and only me.  I know the things I like, and the things I don’t like, and there is something to be said about taking the time to treat yourself to a delicious meal made by you.

I made this after coming home from my internship last week (which I LOVE by the way) and it came together extremely quickly.  I only used things that I had on hand, and was surprised at at how simple and delicious it was.  I have never really understood the expression “layer of flavors” until this mushroom; the mushroom, filled with the tomato, egg, blue cheese (duh) and arugula pesto, really had a lot of different things going on that layered together beautifully.

Something I did with this that I have never done before is peel and crush my own tomatoes.  I generally use canned San Marzano’s, but I had two tomatoes on hand and I thought it was time I learned how to turn these into tomato sauce.  Peeling the tomatoes was SO easy, and I could really taste the flavor difference between them and canned.

Portobello Mushroom Cap with Baked Egg 

Serves One (happily!) 

• 1 large portobello mushroom cap, washed with gills scooped out and stem removed
• 2 Roma tomatoes, or any medium sized tomatoes you can find
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• pinch of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 cup white wine + another 1/2 cup
• 1 egg
• arugula pesto
• 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

Begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees, then move on to the tomatoes.  Put some water in a medium pot and bring it to a boil.  Take your tomatoes and cut a cone out of the top by angling the knife around the stem.  Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water, and cook briefly until the skins are just starting to split.  Remove the tomatoes and run under ice cold water for two minutes.  When the tomatoes have cooled off, remove the skins.

peeled tomatoes!

To seed the tomatoes, simply cut them in half and push the seeds into a bowl with your fingers.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet.   When it is hot, add the peeled tomatoes.

don't burn them!

With your handy potato masher, crush the tomatoes until they are still slightly chunky.  This is fun.  Add the salt, pepper, sugar, basil and 1/2 cup of wine, and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce it to a simmer until the liquid is gone.

this would be excellent on some pasta (not that i like pasta, or anything)

Remove the crushed tomatoes from heat.  Put your mushroom cap in a baking dish and drizzle the rest of the white wine around the mushroom and in the dish (for moisture).  Stuff your mushroom with the crushed tomatoes.

portobello mushroom caps are SO cool! so versatile

Very gently crack your egg on top of the tomato sauce.  Be careful with this!

like everything in my kitchen, the egg slid to the side

Pop the baking dish into the oven! Cook for about 8 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and quickly sprinkle the blue cheese and drizzle the pesto (as much as you’d like!) on top of the egg.  Return to the oven and cook until the egg is just set – about 2 or 3 more minutes.

i'm sure it doesn't surprise you i used an egg in this recipe

Remove from the oven and enjoy! Don’t forget to appreciate the egg as you cut into it and the yolk runs everywhere.  Truly delicious.

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