Mmk, so here’s the thing.
Poached eggs on spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce issss basically the best thing ever. And I’ve been eating it all week. Just try to stop that dinner train, I dare you. Either move outta the way or jump on this one because here it comes.
I’ll just call it out like I usually do with these kinds of recipes: eggs on spaghetti might be a little Dr. Seuss or something. It seems a little weird. Is it weird? I think so. Outside of the box. Eyebrows raised. But what would be really weird would be if you tried a bit of this yummy without falling head over heels in soft-egg love.
Seeeriously.
The whole wheat spaghetti with zingy marinara sauce is perfectly-quick-but-still-made-from-scratch *hooray* but the kicker is that soft egg on top. Poached and perfectly cooked means you get a little bit of soft, runny yolk to cream-ify the noodles as they twirl around the fork in all their seductive noodly ways. Ohhhh my spaghetti. Why do I not have a plate of this in my face right this second?
The night that I made this, I fought long and hard against the Pizza Battle. My brain: CHEESE PIZZA – I’ll make a salad – PEPPERONI PIZZA – I think we have some quinoa – VEGGIE PIZZA – grilled chicken? – CHICKEN BBQ PIZZA – questionable leftovers – MARGHERITA PIZZA. It’s an all too real story of total mind domination that takes place more than I’d like to admit as a food blogger, but I just admitted it anyways. Here you are thinking we’re really good at making perfect dinners for our families and then doing Pinterest crafts before homemade dessert. Uh, for the food bloggers in this house, it’s more like PIZZA.
When Bjork gives me even one half of ounce of interest in ordering a pizza for dinner, I am mentally locked in. I don’t know if he does it on purpose, but he has to know that once the seed is planted, this girl is ready for her za and ain’t nobody gonna change her mind. Pizza is a) delicious, b) cheeeeeeeese, and c) easy. Making a full meal at this point? Good luck.
But this time was different. On this night I was either extra awesomely domestic about home cooking, or extra stubborn about not spending money on more food when we have a pantry aka small, old, catch-all cabinet functioning as a pantry full of food. “Just because you don’t have a plan for the food in your pantry doesn’t mean that you can’t make some magic with it for dinner.” <— says rational, good person brain. I don’t even know how I got enough mojo going to really even activate rational, good person brain, but there she was, staring me down, expecting some really good food that would not leave us looking ashamed upon the empty cardbox pizza box. So I just started cooking. No plan whatsoever other than let’s get this done ASAP because I’m starving. And mid-stir of the tomato sauce, the soft egg vision was born.
Twenty minutes later, the first bite of gorgeously poached egg atop a bed of chewy, wheaty spaghetti soaked in tomato sauce made its way into my mouth. A little fresh basil, salt and black pepper, and a spinach side salad. I fell completely in love with this combination of textures and flavors, and the likelihood that I’ll eat the whole pan in the next two days is, um, what do you call that? For surely certain.
Rational good person brain WIN! Spaghetti marinara. Fresh comfort food, bright red and green colors, 20 minutes, pantry ingredients, leftovers to look forward to. Like, hurry up lunch. ❤
Spaghetti Marinara with Poached Eggs
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This Spaghetti Marinara with Poached Eggs uses simple ingredients to make a deliciously comforting meal from scratch that comes together in just 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 (14 ounce) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 cups chicken broth*
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 8 ounces uncooked whole wheat spaghetti
- 4 eggs
- fresh basil for topping
- cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Heat the olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir frequently for a minute – don’t let it burn or brown because it tastes bitter. Add the tomatoes, broth, wine, salt, basil, and oregano. Simmer while you prep the spaghetti.
- Make the spaghetti: Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and toss with a little olive oil; set aside. When the noodles are done, transfer the simmered sauce to a blender and puree you achieve your desired smoothness. Return the sauce to the pot and add the spaghetti. Toss and cover to keep warm.
- Poach the eggs: Bring a pot of water to boil and place a few metal rims from mason jars in the bottom of the pot – these will act as handy little egg holders. When the water starts boiling, turn the heat off. Quickly (before the water cools off too much) crack individual eggs into a small bowl and pour directly into the metal rim in the boiling water. Repeat for all the eggs. Cover and let the eggs cook on the hot water for 4-5 minutes (4 = very soft, 5 = soft). Carefully remove the eggs from the water with a spatula. Tilt the eggs over the pot to let excess water run off before plating the eggs on your spaghetti.
Notes
You could use less broth (more like 1 1/2 cup) for a thicker sauce. I like more sauce, so I used a little more broth to carry the sauce a bit farther. 🙂 Also, here’s a great tutorial on poaching eggs. It can be a little tricky but the metal rims from the mason jars helped me a ton.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian-Inspired
Keywords: spaghetti with eggs, spaghetti with poached eggs, spaghetti marinara
It’s May, we’re past the middle of the week, and I’m one happy teacher. Go forth and be spaghetti happy!