Uova al Purgatorio, i.e. Eggs in Purgatory

This is one of my favorite ways to use up what's left in my fridge for an easy and filling meal, perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Since this was my dinner, I added ground turkey to my sauce, but for a lighter dish you can nix the extra protien and add fresh vegetables like peppers, spinach or fresh basil.

You'll find that I'm not very good at written recipes, I should probably take more pictures, but I'm easily distracted. Here's the step-by-step sans visual aides:

1/2 Pound ground turkey

2 Cloves garlic, minced

2 Cups red sauce

4 Eggs

Salt & Pepper

Pasta of your choice

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1. Brown turkey with minced garlic in a sautee pan, I used my iron skillet.

2. Reduce heat to medium low, add red sauce and simmer.

3. Use a spoon create four wells in the sauce and crack a raw egg into each. Top with fresh cracked salt and pepper.

4. Cover and cook on low until egg whites have cooked through completely and yolks reach desired level of firmness. Leaving them a bit overeasy gives the dish a nice creaminess.

5. Spoon sauce and egg over al dente pasta and cover with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Wondering where this delicious meal finds its origins? Well that's up for debate, but many like to believe that it arose as a tribute to the great Italian poet Dante as a reference to his description of Purgatory in The Divine Comedy. However, it is a more widely accepted that the dish came as a result of popular vegitarian Italian diets as a way to combine the delicacy of eggs with the simplicity of traditional red sauce. Either way, the combination is "divine".

Casey's Chicken Parm

You can tell that Jolene and I must be friends if we made the exact same meal on the same night and didn't even plan it! My chicken parm is a little different than hers as I used jarred sauce, breaded my chicken, and baked it in the oven after browning it.

I think the secret to chicken parm lies in pounding out the breast meat, breading the chicken, and using a meat thermometer so it does not get over cooked. For the recipe below I used Bertolli Sauce from a jar and Kraft mozzarella cheese. The Kraft cheese I used has the "Touch of Philadelphia Cream Cheese" in it and it was FABULOUS, a little more expensive than the Kroger kind but so delicious and creamy. However, you can substitute for any type of sauce or cheese you prefer. I also mixed Italian breadcrumbs with the panko so the mixture was half and half, for texture reasons.

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper

4 large eggs, beaten with 2 tablespoons water and seasoned with salt and pepper

2 cups panko bread crumbs

1 cup vegetable oil or pure olive oil

Tomato Sauce

1 pound mozzarella, shredded or thinly sliced if fresh

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Fresh basil or parsley leaves, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.

Dredge each breast in the flour and tap off excess, then dip in the egg and let excess drip off, then dredge on both sides in the bread crumbs. There is a certain way that I like to bread my chicken which I think really helps. When you are dredging it in the flour, egg, and bread crumbs, only use one hand on the chicken. Use your other hand to sprinkle the flour and bread crumbs onto the chicken if it dosen't stick. Do not use your "sprinkle hand" hand in the eggs at all. If you do and it gets gooey, wash your hand before proceeding. The dryer you keep your "sprinkle hand" the easier it will be to flour and bread the chicken completely.

Divide the oil between 2 large saute pans and heat over high heat until almost smoking. Add 2 chicken breasts to each pan and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a baking dish and top each breast with some tomato sauce, a handful of shredded mozzarella, and a tablespoon of Parmesan. Bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is melted, about 10 to 15 minutes or until your meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Remove from the oven and garnish with basil or parsley leaves.

Serve over pasta mixed with sauce, and garlic bread.

Jolene's Chicken Parmesan

I think Chicken Parm may be my all time favorite... I'm trying to nail down a recipe for red sauce. Today it came out kind of chunky + watery. I was looking for something a little smoother and more continuous. The flavor was aMAaAzing, but next time I'll try pureeing after cooking the sauce.

Chicken Parm takes: Red sauce, Spaghetti, Fried chicken, Parmesan cheese.

Red Sauce

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 2 hours
Makes: 6 cups red sauce

Ingredients:

• 15 tomatoes
• 1 sweet onion, chopped finely
• 7 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• 1 hunk of pork (I used a pig foot)
• 1 glug EVOO
• 1/4 c red wine
• 1/4 c sugar
• 3 chopped green onions
• fresh basil
• 2 bay leaves
• salt, pepper

The Tomatoes 

1. Fill two large pots with water, bring one to a boil and add ice to the other. Set aside a large mixing bowl.
2. Once boiling, put each tomato in the boiling water for 30-45 sec (4-5 at a time). Remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place directly into the cold water.
3. While more tomatoes sit in the boiling water, transfer your cold water tomatoes to the mixing bowl. So on and so forth.
4. The tomato skins will either already be off or will peel right off.

The Saute Pan

1. Add one glug of oil to a pan on medium heat. Add the pig foot to the pan and cover for 5 minutes.  
2. Add onion and garlic, saute for 5 minutes.

The Sauce Pan

1. Put the tomatoes, saute pan contents and the rest of the ingredients into a large pan on medium heat. Really you'll just heap the wine, sugar, spices and pig's foot together with the peeled tomatoes and cover.
2.  Cover and let simmer on low for a half hour.
3. I take a wooden spoon and bust up the tomatoes after a half hour... it feels like it's speeding the process up.
4. Let it simmer and stir occasionally for the next hour or hour and a half. I think depending on the tomatoes you get, it will take varying amounts of time to cook the water off. Roma tomatoes have thick walls and less water, so they make sauce faster.
5. Once the sauce is cooked, let it stand while you make the chicken and pasta. Before serving, take half of the sauce and puree it. Combine it with the non-pureed sauce.

Fried Chicken 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c flour
• salt, pepper
• 2 t garlic powder
• 2 eggs
• 3 chicken breasts sliced in half.

1. Put a few of the half breasts into a large Ziploc bag and smash them up with a rolling pin. It's therapeutic for you and it startles your guests!
2. Begin heating some oil in a fry pan on medium heat.
3. Dip a breast into the egg, then into the flour.
4. Dip it again into the egg and again into the flour.
5. Repeat for all chicken breasts.
6. Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side. The oil should bubble up when the chicken hits the pan, so to tell if it's hot enough, drop a little flour goober into the oil. It should bubble and float.
7. Top each fried breast with parmesan or mozzarella cheese when it comes out of the oil, the cheese should melt on it.

Combine Spaghetti, Chicken and Sauce. Enjoy!

Joe's Review: "It smells like Olive Garden in here!" :)