Poached eggs laid on a bed of buttered spinach, blanketed in Mornay sauce, dusted with cheese and glazed under the grill until golden and bubbling. À la florentine is the classic French label for any dish set on spinach and gratinéed in this way; with eggs it is a rich brunch and light-supper plate. Break the browned crust and the yolk runs into the cheese sauce and down through the spinach — soft poached egg, savoury Mornay and earthy greens in one warm, gratinéed dish.
The name à la florentine — 'in the style of Florence' — became the standard French culinary term for preparations served on a bed of spinach and napped with Mornay sauce, set down in the classic repertoire and listed in Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire (1903). A long-told story credits Catherine de' Medici, the Florentine who married into the French royal house in 1533, with bringing spinach (and a taste for it) to France, which is why her city's name attached to spinach dishes; this is a charming culinary legend rather than documented fact, and the term simply marks the spinach-and-Mornay treatment. Mornay sauce — a béchamel enriched with Gruyère and yolk — is itself a 19th-century Parisian sauce, and œufs à la florentine sits squarely in that gratin tradition.
Under a freckled golden crust of grilled cheese lies a smooth layer of Mornay, then the eggs, then a dark green cushion of buttered spinach. Cut into an egg and the yolk spills out bright and liquid, mingling with the rich, Gruyère-scented sauce; the white is soft and just set from the poaching. The spinach is silky and faintly bitter, a green counterweight to all that cream and cheese. It eats rich and savoury, the runny yolk turning the Mornay into an even more luscious sauce. Served in a gratin dish with bread to scrape it clean.
Three components meet at the last moment. The eggs are poached separately — slipped into barely simmering water with a dash of vinegar, which helps the white coagulate around the yolk before it disperses — and lifted while the yolk is still liquid, often trimmed of ragged threads. The spinach is wilted and squeezed dry, because spinach holds enormous water that would otherwise thin the sauce to a puddle. The Mornay is a béchamel — a white roux loosened with milk — finished off the heat with Gruyère and yolk, never boiled after the cheese goes in or it turns stringy. Assembled over the spinach and eggs, the dish goes under a hot grill for only a couple of minutes: long enough for the cheese top to brown by Maillard reaction, short enough that the poached yolks stay soft beneath their blanket.
Variations
À la florentine is a whole family: fish (sole, smoked haddock), chicken or crêpes are equally set on spinach and gratinéed in Mornay. With a poached egg on a toasted muffin and hollandaise instead of Mornay it becomes eggs Florentine in the Anglo-American brunch sense — a vegetarian eggs Benedict, which is a separate, American-coded dish. Some kitchens add a slice of ham beneath the egg, or nutmeg and a little cream to the spinach. The dish overlaps with œufs en cocotte à la florentine, where the egg is baked on spinach in a ramekin rather than poached and gratinéed.
On the Palate
Where Œufs Florentine sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min active + 5 min waiting
- 18 min
Wilt the spinach in butter, season with nutmeg, and squeeze it dry before spreading it in a gratin dish.
Watch outSqueeze the wilted spinach really dry before it goes in the dish — spinach holds huge amounts of water that would thin the Mornay to a puddle.
- 28 min
Poach the eggs in barely simmering water with a dash of vinegar until the whites set but the yolks stay soft, then lift out and drain.
Watch outPoach the eggs in barely simmering water until the whites set but the yolks stay liquid — a rolling boil tears the whites into ragged threads.
- 38 min
Make a white roux, whisk in milk to a smooth béchamel, and finish off the heat with grated Gruyère and a yolk to make the Mornay.
Watch outFinish the Mornay off the heat once the Gruyère goes in — boil it after the cheese and it turns stringy and grainy.
- 42 min
Set the drained poached eggs on the bed of spinach.
- 52 min
Coat the eggs with the warm Mornay sauce and dust the top with more grated cheese.
- 63 min
Glaze under a hot grill until the surface is golden and bubbling, and serve at once.
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