STEPS 7 INGREDIENTS 5 TIME 15 MINS I only discovered breakfast pasta recently, when my mamma-in law Marisa and her husband Gianni came to stay. And what a simple and beautifully buttery discovery it was!
This pasta with fried egg (in Italian, ‘pasta con l’uovo’) is just so tasty and quick to make that it has quickly become one of my very favourite pasta dishes.
And it requires so few ingredients… I just wish I’d known about this Italian-approved recipe when I was a student!
Not only is breakfast pasta perfect as a zero-thought ‘last-minute’ meal, it’s also great if your refrigerator is running on empty, because all you need is:
• Pasta (packet pasta or freshly made by you)
• Butter
• Salt
• 1 egg per person
• Parmesan cheese (optional)
You can also use this dish to use up any medium-hard cheese you might have lying around.
That’s it… talk about low-maintenance cooking!
Just one suggestion before we dive in: this dish is far from ‘fine dining’, so don’t offer it to any guests you’re desperate to impress (it will be their loss taste-wise, but still…). Instead this recipe can be your luscious little secret.
Serves 1 (multiply ingredients as necessary)
Ingredients: (For a printable PDF shopping list click here, or right-click this link and choose ‘Save target/link as’ to save the list for later.)
100g/3.5oz of your favourite pasta (spaghetti and other long pasta shapes work best)
1 egg
20g/0.7oz of butter
20g/0.7oz (1 tablespoon) grated parmesan cheese
Salt
Equipment
Large pan/skillet
Frying pan
Timings
10-12 minutes (less with fresh pasta)
STEP 1 – Boil a full pan of water for the pasta (including 4 or 5 pinches of salt).
STEP 2 – Check the pasta’s recommended cooking time (see the packet, or if you made it fresh, I estimate about 5 minutes), and throw it into the boiling water.
STEP 3 – While the pasta cooks, chop up any leftover medium-hard cheese into 20 1cm/half-inch cubes.
STEP 4 – When the pasta has just 2 or 3 minutes left to cook, melt your butter in the frying pan. Use a medium heat so it doesn’t burn.
STEP 5 – Pasta done? Drain the water.
Now pour the butter from the frying pan into the pan of cooked, drained pasta (keep the pan off the heat!), and add the cheese cubes. Mix it thoroughly so that the pasta is covered in the lovely stuff.
STEP 6 – Use the still-buttery frying pan to fry your egg just how you like it.
STEP 7 – Pop your pasta in a dish, garnish it with some grated parmesan cheese, and pop the egg on top. (I suggest adding a pinch more salt onto the egg too.)
Bravo… your ‘pasta con l’uovo’ is done!
Serve with: Just a glass of water (this dish is all about keeping it simple), and a napkin to wipe away all that butter!
Final note: I call this dish breakfast pasta because of its fried egg ingredient, which is reminiscent of a good old English ‘fry up’ (fried breakfast). I’m not, in truth, suggesting you eat it for breakfast!