Mushroom ragout with baked eggs and pesto

Lately I seem to be at a loss what to do with eggs. Fried eggs scream of unhealthy feelings and guilt, poached take too bleedin' long (for a hard yolk) and produce some strange, alien looking tendril nonsense, scrambled make a mess of the pan and omelets and fritattas are better eaten cold (in my opinion). So that leaves baking of some kind, usually with copious amounts of cheese scattered recklessly on top and browned under the grill, plus, some sort of sauteed vegetables underneath all that egg and cheese goes down pretty well and if you're really going to make this an egg feast, some home-made pesto on top sounds like a nice finish.

I bought some nice, mixed mushrooms from the winter market on Saturday, along with a goose, (watch this space for Christmas day goose action)! I decided to make a mushroom ragout with the whole bag which included shitake, oyster and the normal white.

I know to some people, the thought of making pesto in December is tantamount to criminal as basil doesn't exactly thrive in the winter and we should all be eating locally, shouldn't we...but, I bought the basil from Seattle where it stated 'product of the USA'...That's OK, right? Whatever your stance, it needed using and pesto is the most obvious choice, plus I now have some for pasta, which I haven't had in a VERY long time! Recipes at bottom of post.

Recipe : Mixed mushroom ragout with baked eggs and cheese

2 cups mixed mushrooms, chopped in half or left whole if small

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

2 tsp mushroom ketchup

1/2 tsp salt, few twists of  black pepper

2 tbsp tomato juice

2 eggs

1 cup grated cheese (I used Asiago)

Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan over gentle heat and saute the onion until soft. 

Add the garlic, mushrooms, mushroom ketchup, salt, black pepper and tomato juice and fry gently until the mushrooms are soft (about 15 mins or so).

Spread the mushrooms into a baking dish and make two dents on either side. 

Crack an egg into each dent and cover the whole thing with cheese.

Bake in a 375oF oven for about 30 - 35 minutes. If you like your eggs runny, reduce this by about 10 minutes, keep checking on the eggs progress and remove when you like.

Recipe: Pesto

1 cup basil leaves

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tbsp almond meal

dash of white wine vinegar

about 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

Blend everything together, keep checking the tastes and tweak with more of whatever you like, (more Parmesan or more oil, for example), you could also add some finely chopped garlic and / or some lemon juice. 

Spoon a little of the pesto onto the mushrooms, eggs and cheese.