Pasta with Fried Egg

Last night, I made one of my favorite quick-and-easy dinners – spaghetti with a fried egg on top.

Spaghetti with Garlic, Parmesan, Parsley, and a Fried Egg

Look at the egg, melting the cheese, the yolk ready to burst and coat the pasta with its gooey yellow goodness!

Fried Egg, Up Close

This is a ridiculously easy meal to prepare. I hope you’ll give it a try the next time you want to have eggs and pasta (two of the best foods ever) at the same time. This also makes a delicious breakfast.

Recipe (serves 2):

What you need:

• 4-5 ounces of whole wheat thin spaghetti
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• Light, trans-fat free margarine
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped (I like a lot of garlic!)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 large eggs
• Salt and pepper, to taste

How to do it:

1. Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. While the pasta is cooking, toast the garlic with the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over low heat. Don’t let the garlic turn brown – cook until just fragrant. Right before draining the pasta, reserve 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and toss with the garlic. Add 1 Tbsp. of margarine to the cooked pasta and toss to coat. If the pasta seems dry, add some of the reserved pasta water. Cover to keep warm.
2. Heat another 1 Tbsp. of margarine in the nonstick skillet and fry the eggs, sunny-side up. The yolk should still be runny, but the whites should be cooked through. Season the cooked  egg with salt and pepper.
3. Plate the pasta and sprinkle with the chopped parsley and parmesan cheese. Place the fried egg on top of the pasta.
4. Dig in!

This meal is crazy cheap. I used about 50 cents’ worth of pasta, 50 cents’ worth of eggs (cage-free, omega-3, vegetarian-fed), and about $1.00 worth of cheese, oil, margarine, garlic, and parsley. That means that this meal cost about $1 per plate! Hooray for cheap pasta and eggs!

If you are wondering about the health benefits of eggs… well, remember “The Egg Song“? If not, watch the video, and I can guarantee you’ll be singing about eggs for a week. If you’re looking for something a bit more scientific, wikipedia says of eggs, “They supply all essential amino acids for humans, and provide several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin,folic acid, [[vitamin B₆]], vitamin B12, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. They are also an inexpensive single-food source of protein. … The egg is one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.” These are just a few reasons why – I love egg!

I Love Egg! - Image from http://www.iloveegg.com

So good.