Bow-Tie Pasta with Fried Eggs and Gruyère {One Photo Friday}

Quick comfort food. There isn't much that's better. This Jacques Pépin recipe is simple, quick to the table, and with Gruyère cheese melting into the pasta, plus a couple of fried eggs on top, it's pretty perfect.  

Jacques says, "This is truly one of my favorite dishes to eat at home. Gloria and I like our pasta simply seasoned with the best possible olive oil, salt, pepper, chives, and Gruyère cheese, which melts from the heat of the pasta. Make sure that the serving plates--we use soup plates--are very hot."

I made a couple of minor changes to the recipe--noted in red below.

Bow-Tie Pasta with Fried Eggs and Gruyère
Adapted from Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way
(Serves 4) 

12 oz bow-tie pasta (farfalle) pasta (about 6 cups) (I used mini farfalle)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp minced fresh chives (I used fresh tarragon)
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
8 large eggs (preferably organic)
About 1 1/3 cups (7 oz) grated Swiss (Gruyère or Emmenthaler)

Cook pasta to package instructions or until it is done to your liking. Meanwhile put the herbs, salt, and pepper in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta. When the pasta is ready, remove 1/2 cup of the cooking water and add it to the bowl. Drain the pasta well, add it to the bowl, and toss well.

For the Garnish: Melt 1/2 tablespoon of the butter in each of two 6-inch non-stick skillets. Break 2 of the eggs into each skillet and cook, covered, over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes or just until the whites are set. Spoon a 6-ounce ladle of pasta into each of  two warmed plates and sprinkle on a heaping spoonful of cheese. Place the two eggs on top of the pasta, add a little more cheese, then a half ladle of pasta. (The egg yolks should still be visible through the top layer of the pasta.) Cook the remaining 4 eggs and assemble the two remaining plates in the same way. Serve immediately. 

You have to have at least one photo showing the egg yolk drizzling into the pasta.

Notes/Results: A bowl of pasta with melted cheese and herbs is good and almost always hits the spot, but nestle an egg into it, letting that silky yolk coat the cheesy pasta... and now you have something special. This is a great little recipe that can be adapted to whatever pasta, cheese and herbs you have in your pantry and pulled out whenever you want something comforting and delicious without a lot of effort. Jacques called for chives in his version but I love tarragon with eggs and had some in my fridge so I used it instead. Mini pasta is always more fun to eat--I love these little bow ties. I made a half batch of this dish and I cut the amount of oil and cheese down just a touch. I probably could have gotten along with just one egg--but it did give me plenty of that liquid gold to stir into my pasta. ;-) I will happily make this again.  

I'm linking this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs where it's Fast Food Jacques's Way this week and we are making Pépin recipes that take 30 minutes or less to cook. You can see what quick recipes everyone made by checking out the photo links on the post.

 {One Photo Friday: Since I normally drag out my big camera and gear, take a bunch of photos of my recipes, and then spend time obsessing over them--I decided that for Fridays, I'll simplify by posting a recipe or something interesting and then just take (usually) one photo of it with my iPhone--no muss/no fuss.}