Poached eggs with ‘Nduja Butter and Spinach

We love the strong, spicy flavour of ‘nduja (a spreadable pork sausage from Calabria in Southern Italy) so this recipe for Poached eggs with ‘Nduja Butter and Spinach from Ed Smith’s Good Eggs cookbook was on the shortlist for our first few dishes to make.

Even with Ed’s eggcellent instructions, poaching eggs is not our forte, so we took some advice from the book’s introduction and swapped fried eggs into the dish instead. One of the beauties of this book is that you can mix and match the cooking method for your eggs, the many different sauces and garnishes, and sides to make an almost endless collection of variations.

Find out more in our full review of Good Eggs by Ed Smith.

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5 from 1 vote

Poached Eggs with ’Nduja Butter and Spinach

Calabrian ’nduja is fiery, fruity and salty. Ideal with eggs, then. It mellows a little once incorporated into melted butter – although admittedly that is still a rich combination; even more so when joined by molten egg yolk. But there’s balance here, with the ooze offset by the purity of the poached whites, plus a soft bed of spinach and English muffins, which soak everything up. Glorious.

Servings 2 people

Author Ed Smith

Ingredients

• 35 g (1¼ oz) ’nduja
• 20 g (¾ oz) unsalted butter, plus extra for the muffins
• 200 g (7 oz) baby spinach
• Flaky sea salt and ground black pepper
• 2 English muffins, halved and toasted
• 4 eggs

Notes

Also Consider:

• Replacing ’nduja with Mallorcan sobrasada. There are also some vegan ’nduja products, if you want to remove meat from this dish.
• Thick-cut, toasted sourdough, ciabatta or crumpets instead of muffins.
• Spooning the sauce over fried eggs.

Instructions

• Gently melt the ’nduja and butter together in a small saucepan over a very low heat. Prod and stir until combined. The sauce should be loose and glossy – don’t let this boil or fry, otherwise the pork in the ’nduja hardens and the butter and sauce will split. Remove from direct heat while you assemble the other components.
• Wilt the spinach in a large sauté or frying pan (skillet) set over a medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of water to encourage the cooking process (no need for butter or oil – there’s enough already in this dish). Once cooked, squeeze away any excess liquid. Season generously with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, toast and butter the muffins and poach the eggs.
• Serve, topping the toasted muffins with mounds of spinach and the poached eggs. Give the ’nduja butter a good stir, then spoon over the top.

Pete used the ‘nduja-tinged butter left in the pan to fry the eggs, adding a little extra flavour to the crisp frills at the skirts of the egg whites.

We have many more egg recipes for you to explore.

Kavey Eats received a review copy of Good Eggs: Over 100 Cracking Ways to Cook and Elevate Eggs by Ed Smith from publishers Quadrille. Book photography by Sam A. Harris. Home cooked photos by Kavita Favelle.