Huevos al Plato — 'eggs on a plate' — is eggs baked in individual earthenware dishes on a bed of sofrito (tomato, pepper, onion), serrano ham, and peas, finished in the oven until the whites set and the yolks stay runny. It is the great Spanish working lunch: cheap, fast, satisfying, eaten with bread straight from the cazuelita.
Huevos al Plato is a dish of every Spanish bar and household, especially in Andalusia and Madrid. The cazuelita (individual earthenware dish) is the point — each diner gets their own, straight from the oven. The sofrito base is the Spanish foundation; the ham and peas add protein; the egg on top makes it a meal. It is the cousin of huevos a la flamenca, but simpler and faster.
A bubbling cazuelita lands on the table. Beneath a just-set egg with a still-runny yolk lies a thick, sweet sofrito of tomato and pepper, with salty cubes of serrano ham and bright green peas. Break the yolk; let it run into the sofrito. Mop it all with bread — that is the dish.
The sofrito is cooked first until jammy and sweet, so it does not turn watery in the oven. The egg goes on top raw and the dish is baked just long enough to set the white — overbaking dries the yolk. The earthenware cazuelita holds heat and continues cooking the dish at the table, so it is best taken out of the oven when the white is barely set.
Variations
Some add chorizo; some add asparagus tips; some top with a slice of cured ham; some crack two eggs per dish.
On the Palate
Where Huevos al Plato sits in the Spanish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min active + 10 min waiting
- 13 min
Preheat oven to 200°C.
- 26 min
In a pan, soften diced onion, red pepper, and minced garlic in olive oil 6 minutes.
- 36 min
Add diced serrano ham and grated tomato; cook 6 minutes into a thick sofrito.
Watch outCook the sofrito down until it's jammy and no longer weeping liquid — a watery base turns the whole dish soupy in the oven.
- 42 min
Add a handful of peas; cook 2 minutes.
- 53 min
Divide the sofrito between 2 cazuelitas; make a well in each; crack 1 egg into each well.
- 68 min
Bake 8 minutes, until white is just set and yolk is still runny.
Watch outPull it from the oven the moment the whites just set and the yolks still wobble — the hot cazuela keeps cooking at the table, so bake a hair under.
- 72 min
Rest 2 minutes (the dish will keep cooking).
- 81 min
Serve at once in the cazuelita, with bread.
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