Elena's eggs

eggs florentine

Today ,my old Fiat Punto  decided she didn’t  want to go! Not too bad I thought but then I looked in the fridge and a serious panic came over me. Ok I need to make a small introduction:  I live in the middle of the country, the  nearest store is a drive away, okay I am a runner and I go running  three times a week, but to run up and back  to the village with shopping bags I thought was a little much!  So I thought I’d go to my neighbor, who is within walking distance ,plus , why not take Lui our dog ( he’s an old hunting hound who arrived at our house over a year ago and never left. But this is another story.)  . Elena, my neighbor is a real country woman(and an expert at making handmade pasta) she has  many chickens of course, so I thought I could ask her a couple of eggs.

Elena's eggs

Everything went well, I returned  home with a basket full of eggs ( Italians are very generous, especially with food). At this point, considering the rest of the ingredients in my fridge were a little bit of ricotta cheese and a bit of butter … … … … … … … … …I had an idea. I remembered  that my grandfather (the Tuscan one) used to prepare  a real bomb of energy  for our lunch when me and my brothers were little , he called it Eggs Florentine! 

Ingredients for two people
4 eggs
75 g ricotta cheese
250 cl milk
50 g butter
1 -1 / 2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
How it works:
Boil eggs, once cool , shell and with a sharp knife cut the eggs open lengthwise. Gently remove the yolk and set aside. In a bowl combine egg yolks, ricotta, 25 grams of butter (room temperature), 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. With a fork, mix well to form a paste. Grease with butter a baking dish . Prepare the béchamel sauce: melt half the butter in a saucepan, add flour and mix well with a wooden spoon,  when the flour is lightly browned, stir in, gradually, the milk already boiled separately. Add salt and pepper and heat gently , keep stirring, for 5 minutes. That will give you the Béchamel sauce . Place the compound  back into the  egg whites with a spoon , giving it the shape of the yolk (if you have more of the egg yolk mix, you can distribute it to the bottom of baking dish). Place the filled egg whites into the pan, side by side, cover with the béchamel sauce, spread over the remaining Parmesan and bake at 180-200 degrees. Cook until the surface  is lightly browned. Serve at the table still hot.