1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves 12 eggs 4 tablespoons grated salted ricotta handful of pumpkin seeds handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley crusty baguette Eggplant purée: 2 eggplants ½ onion 1 garlic clove 40 ml extra virgin olive oil juice and zest of 1 lemon 1 tablespoon tahini ½ teaspoon sugar sea salt Sofrito: 2 Spanish onions, thinly sliced 6 bull horn peppers, thinly sliced 6 garlic cloves 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced 50 ml extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 1 teaspoon picked thyme leaves sea salt Serves 4
For the eggplant purée, place the eggplants on the gas burner of the stove top, or in the oven at 280°C. The eggplant will blacken, soften and crinkle when ready. Wrap each eggplant in foil and set aside to sweat. Once cooled, remove the blackened skin from the eggplant and discard. In a saucepan over low heat, soften the onion and garlic in the oil, until translucent. Allow to cool slightly. Transfer to a blender or food processor, along with the remaining purée ingredients, then blend until smooth and creamy. Set aside. For the sofrito, put the onion, bull horn pepper, garlic, fennel and oil in a saucepan and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the rest of the sofrito ingredients and cook for a further minute. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place four small (300 ml) cast-iron cocottes in the oven for 10 minutes. Transfer the cocottes to the stove top over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of sofrito to each pot and divide the spinach equally between the four cocottes, and cook until the spinach is wilted. Break three eggs into each cocotte and add 2 tablespoons of the eggplant purée and a tablespoon of grated ricotta. Cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring gently so as not to break the yolks. Transfer the cocottes to the top shelf of the oven set to grill function, and cook for another 3 minutes or so, to cook through and to colour. The dish is ready when the egg whites have only just cooked and the yolks are still runny. Serve garnished with the pumpkin seeds and parsley, and serve with plenty of crusty baguette on the side.
