Oeuf Cocotte* is a dish consisting of an egg baked with other ingredients in a ramekin. Chocolate and Zucchini has a recipe on her site for this dish and explains that it is usually made with ham and creme fraiche, however I first heard of this dish from a French vegetarian cookbook in which the egg was cooked in a mushroom saute. The recipe I’m giving you here is my current favorite in which an egg is baked in a marinara sauce and topped with parmesean and served with toast fingers. I will list the ingredients you will need per one 8 ounce ramekin, so if you’re making more than one you need to multiply all ingredients by the number of servings you wish to make.
This recipe doesn’t include the marinara recipe. You can use any that you have on hand. This is a simple and satisfying meal. I especially like to eat it for breakfast.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup marinara sauce (my favorite is a mushroom marinara)
1 egg
1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
the veriest smear of oil or butter to grease the ramekin
2 slices buttered wheat toast cut into fingers
Method:
Preheat your oven to 400°
Grease your ramekin.
Set it in a larger deeper dish (see picture above) and fill halfway with water (this will help heat the dish evenly). Ladle about a half a cup of the marinara into the ramekin.
Crack your egg into it then cover the egg with the remaining 1/4 cup marinara.
Sprinkle the Parmesan on the top and put in the oven to bake.
Baking times vary depending on your oven and how you like your eggs. The times I give here are approximate according to how my oven heats:
20 minutes: if you like your egg whites almost runny like Parisians do, this is probably long enough. They will just barely be set up at this point and the yolk will be very runny.
25 minutes: the whites should be completely cooked but the yolk will still be runny.
30 minutes: the yolks will be thick but not completely hard cooked. This is my favorite way. I like the yolks to be tender and soft but not runny.
35 minutes: the yolk should, at this point, be thoroughly hard cooked.
When the dish is almost ready to come out of the oven make the toast.
*I have also seen this spelled “oeufs en cocotte”.
Good God, this looks delicious!!! I’ll have to try it this week.
totally trying this soon! thank you for the inspiration and ideas! I need many as I am in some rut!
I’ve never seen anything like this…I think this is a must-try for tomorrow morning!! Yes, a perfect recipe to get out of a rut!
Plus, you’ve got me thinking of other variations to try for this.
Although I found my first recipe for oeuf cocotte in a French cookbook, the first time I ever saw eggs cooked in a marinara sauce was in a vegetarian Italian cookbook, then in a Northern Africa cookbook. At first I thought eggs and a marinara sauce sounded weird but I tried it and it’s so good! That was several years ago and I revisit this pairing often. You can also (if you prefer, or don’t have 8 ounce ramekins) fry the eggs in a marinara on the stovetop. You just spoon about a cup of marinara into a saute pan and make a little hole in the center of the sauce to crack the egg into and cook it until the egg is the consistency you prefer. I don’t even use oil in the pan when I do it that way.
Now that fall is here I also want to revisit the mushroom version of this dish.
Made these tonight. A big hit with the whole family and how often does that happen!?!
yumm we make a version of this but instead of using a ramekin i bake them in a half a butternut squash, tasty and you can eat the dish too.
I’m so happy they were a hit with the whole family Green Bean!
Riana- is your version on your cooking blog? I want to try it! Do you precook the butternut a little before hand? Butternut is one of my very favorite winter squashes.
Mmm, this looks delicious!
It really is! But also easy which also appeals to me. I just had lunch but this picture makes me hungry.