Poached Pasta Perfection

This recipe is one of my favorites for go-to grub! It's quick and easy and contains many ingredients that almost always live in my pantry. I like that I can make it for one or two (or seven if need be) and can easily add meat or other fresh veggies depending upon what I have on hand.

Poaching traditionally involves placing an egg into steadily simmering water (sometimes with a little vinegar to help the egg keep its shape). In today's recipe we will instead poach the eggs in the simmering tomato sauce. Mmmmmmm....

Poached Eggs Pasta with Tomato Tarragon Sauce
--4 oz. dry spaghetti
--TBSP olive oil
--small yellow or white onion, diced
--garlic, minced
--crushed red pepper
--small zucchini, either quartered or thinly sliced
--black pepper
--14.5 oz. can of crushed or diced tomatoes
--tarragon
--1/4 tsp sugar
--2 eggs

Cook pasta (I don't use salt or oil in mine so the calorie counts below will reflect this).

While pasta cooks, heat oil in a large deep-sided skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper and cook 2-ish minutes before adding the zucchini and black pepper (to taste). Cook until vegetables are tender.

Add the tomatoes and sugar and tarragon and stir well to combine. Continue to heat over medium heat, allowing tomato sauce to warm. Eggs are best poached at about 160 degrees--you can measure with a thermometer if you like, but bringing the sauce to a nice medium simmer should suffice.

Once the sauce is heated to a constant temperature, scoot the veggies around to make little spaces for the egg. Make sure to keep some sauce on the bottom of the pan so the egg doesn't stick to it.  Crack the egg into a cup (to ensure it isn't bad) and then pour the egg into the pan. After 3 minutes the bottom of the egg white should be cooked. You can flip the egg if you need to and cook another 2 minutes, or cover the pan for 1 minute to let the heat encapsulate the egg. Serve immediately!

Perfectly poached eggs should be runny in the middle but with warm yolks and encased in a fully cooked fluffy egg white cave.

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2
Calories: 308 per serving