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Eggs with Tomato Sauce
(Uova al pomidoro) Prepare some hard boiled eggs, cut them through the middle lengthwise, place in good order upon a plate and pour some good tomato sauce, taking care not to cover the upper part of the eggs, which must emerge from the sauce.
Instead of the tomato, the eggs may be arranged with a balsamella sauce (No. 54). 181
A two-ingredient assembly whose success rests entirely on the eggs and the sauce being right. The original assumes you already have both on hand.
- BalsamellaThe book's Italian spelling of béchamel — a white sauce of butter, flour and milk. Recipe No. 54 in the original volume; any standard medium béchamel works, seasoned with salt, white pepper and a little nutmeg.
- PomidoroAn older spelling of pomodoro. A "good tomato sauce" in this tradition would be a cooked, simmered sauce rather than a raw puree, typically started with aromatics such as onion, celery and herbs in oil or butter. It needs to be thick enough to hold its place on the plate.
- Hard boiled eggsModern practice: 9–11 minutes for large eggs at a bare simmer, then straight into cold water. Longer gives the grey-green ring and the sulphurous smell that makes this dish unpleasant.
- Cutting cleanlyWipe the blade between cuts, or use a thin-bladed knife dipped in hot water. Cold eggs cut more neatly than warm ones.
- The hingeThe recipe is explicit that the upper part of the eggs must not be covered, so pour the sauce around the base rather than over the top. Presumably the halves are set cut side up so the yolks show.
- TemperatureServe the sauce hot and the eggs at least at room temperature, or warmed briefly in a low oven. Cold eggs under hot sauce give a lukewarm dish.
- YieldTwo eggs per person as a light second course, one as an antipasto. Figure roughly 1/4 cup of sauce per egg.
Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) is often said to draw heavily on Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene, the 1891 volume generally credited with codifying a national Italian cookery for the middle-class household, though the relationship has never been formally documented and Gentile's numbering is her own. The numbered cross-reference to "balsamella (No. 54)" echoes that structure: Artusi built his book as a web of internal references, so that a handful of mother sauces could be recombined endlessly. The spelling balsamella is the Italianized form of the French b"