Cooking this dish requires cocottes or something similar. Cocottes are single-serve baking pots that are essentially mini Dutch ovens with handles. They’re heatproof and heavy. We don’t have traditional cocottes here at home but we do have a dozen ovenproof bowls with handles that fairly resemble the French cooking vessel.
You just coat the inside of bowls with oil (or softened butter which I prefer), crack an egg or eggs directly into each one, and add whatever delicious ingredients you fancy — herbs, cheese, cream… Then, you bake the eggs in bain-marie (water bath) until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny.
So, just to be clear, you can add pretty much anything to the eggs. You can add seafood or meat, or just cream and a combination of cheeses. In this recipe, the eggs bake in a bed of ragu made with sausage meat and bacon.
To make the ragu, spread crumbled sausage meat and sliced bacon in a cold pan, set the heat to medium-low and cook them together until they have rendered fat. Then, you add garlic, onion, oregano, salt and pepper, and continue cooking until the onion pieces are translucent. Throw in a couple of bay leaves and pour in a can of tomatoes. Stir. Set the heat to low, cover the pan and cook until the mixture is no longer soupy. Taste once in a while and add more salt and pepper, or both, if needed.
When the ragu is done, liberally rub the inside of single-serve ovenproof bowls with softened butter. Spoon enough ragu into each bowl until half-full.
Using a teaspoon, create an indentation at the center of bowl by pushing the ragu towards the edges. Slide an egg into the indentation and cover with cheese.
Arrange the bowls in a baking pan and pour enough hot water into the pan so that the entire lower half of the bowls are submerged. This is the bain-marie (water bath) part.
Bake the cheese-topped eggs and ragu in a preheated 350F oven. How long exactly depends on the size of the bowls. I used bowls four inches in diameter and two inches in height. After 20 minutes, I checked the status of the eggs. Seeing that the whites were firm, I removed the bowls from the oven.
I would have garnished my sausage ragu eggs en cocotte with parsley but I had none so I sliced a couple of stalks of scallion and sprinkled them on top.
Ingredients
Ragu
- 300 grams sausages (see notes) casings discarded
- 200 grams belly bacon thinly sliced
- 1 onion peeled and roughly chopped
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- salt
- pepper
- 2 pinches ground oregano
- sugar (optional)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 can tomatoes 400 grams
Eggs and topping
- 1 ½ teaspoons softened butter divided
- 3 eggs (see notes)
- grated cheese (see notes) as much as you like
- fresh greens to garnish
Instructions
Cook the ragu
- Place a cold pan on the stove and spread the sausage meat and bacon in it. With the heat set on medium-low, cook the meats together until you see a generous amount of rendered fat.
- Add the onion and garlic, oregano, a few pinches of salt and pepper (and, optionally, a bit of sugar), and cook until the onion pieces are translucent.
- Add the canned tomatoes and bay leaves and cook, stirring, until simmering.
- Cover the pan and cook over low heat until the liquid has reduced by half.
- Taste, adjust the seasonings if needed, and set aside.
Assemble the dish
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Fill a kettle with water and heat.
- Drop half a teaspoon of butter into each of three single-serve baking bowls and spread to coat the bottom and sides.
- Spoon the ragu into the bowls until half full.
- Create grooves (indentations) at the center of the ragu by pushing the meat to the edges using a teaspoon.
- Slide an egg into the groove.
- Cover the egg with grated cheese.
Bake the dish
- Place the bowls in a baking dish then pour hot water into the dish (be careful not to let any water into the bowls) until the lower half of the bowls are surbmerged.
- Bake the ragu and eggs for 20 minutes or just until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still jiggly.
Serve
- Garnish the sausage meat ragu eggs en cocotte with fresh greens.
- Best with crusty bread.
