Saucy, Spicy, All-Day Eggs

and a Spin It explainer

This week's video is for Pantry Eggs in Purgatory, a recipe so barebones that my only hope is that you skim it once and make it a thousand times. It’s also illustrative of my entire Spin It philosophy. Spin It is my way of saying “sub” or “alt” for ingredient substitutions, but I didn’t like either of those words so, Spin It was born. 

Why poach when you can purgatory?

When I wrote my first book, Where Cooking Begins, I did not intend to include a list of Spin Its with every recipe. (When I was copyediting Where Cooking Begins, I sure did curse myself for making every recipe twice as long.) But once I started the recipe development process, I realized that I rarely make recipes the same way twice. (Does anybody?) While this had been a normal part of my home cook’s life, it posed an issue once it came time to make things official.

I think I was working on pasta e fagiole, in fact, and thought I had onion for the soffritto, but actually I had a leek. When you’re all set up with the rest of the ingredients, the equipment, and the exact window of time that you need to make a dish, not having something can feel like being on a stalled train when you’re late for a date. I personally am way too lazy to go to the store for an onion when I have something that will act onion-y, and in that moment I realized it would be dishonest to expect my readers to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. 

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