Épinards à la crème et aux œufs

Creamed spinach with eggs was yesterday's lunch. I wanted some greenery on my plate after the (delicious) lunch we made the day before — shrimp scampi with gnocchi (photo below) (another recipe) — in which the only green vegetable was chopped fresh parsley. Creamed spinach with eggs — whether poached, soft-boiled, or hard- boiled — is something I used to cook when I lived in Paris as well as in Washington DC and San Francisco. It's quick, easy, tasty, and a true comfort food as far as I'm concerned.

The ingredients for the spinach and eggs dish are pretty straightforward: spinach (fresh or frozen), chopped shallot or onion, crème fraîche or other cream, salt and pepper, powdered or grated nutmeg, eggs, and grated Parmesan cheese.

 

         
Sauté the shallot or onion in butter in a pan. When the shallots are tender, put pre-cooked spinach into the pan. When the spinach is tender, add cream (as much or as little as you want). Let the spinach simmer until the cream has thickened slightly.

Break eggs into little bowls or cups so that they will be easy to place on top of the creamed spinach. Put a lid on the pan and when the egg whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny, take the pan to the table and spoon spinach and eggs onto plates. Grate some Parmesan cheese over the top (or not).

P.S. I neglected to use a spoon to make little indentations in the spinach for the yolks before putting in the first two eggs, so they slid off to the side. It didn't really matter, but the second pair of eggs worked better.

Here's a photo of the previous day's shrimp scampi and gnocchi lunch.