Greens, Pancetta, and Poached Egg Salad

Recipe: Greens, Pancetta, and Poached Egg Salad
Page: 81
Date Cooked: February 26, 2011

This particular recipe is a result of Jonathan Waxman's "quandary of coming up with a special egg dish at [his] restaurant Bud's in New York City" and I can say it is more than just an egg dish. This was my first time poaching an egg in red wine and I'm still not sure if I did it correctly. Nonetheless, I completed the dish.

Ingredients: Pancetta, shitake mushrooms, pepper, Beaujolais, red wine vinegar, curly endive, mustard, olive oil, and eggs

The pancetta is cut into thin strips and sautéed until crispy. The pancetta is removed from the pan, leaving the fat. Chopped shitake mushrooms are then placed into the same skillet, peppered, and cooked until lightly browned.

Top Left: Chopped pancetta strips
Top Right: Chopped shitake caps
Bottom Left: Crispy Pancetta
Bottom Right: Shitake sauteed in pancetta fat

While the mushrooms cooked, the Beaujolais and red wine vinegar were placed in a saucepan and brought to a simmer. The endive was washed and dried. Then the pancetta, shitakes, and pancetta fat were all added to the endive and tossed.

Left: Beaujolais and red wine vinegar simmering
Right: Curly endive tossed with pancetta and shitakes

The mushroom pan was deglazed with some more red wine vinegar. Mustard and olive oil were added to the pan and cooked for a few minutes. 

Mustard vinaigrette in the making

Finally, the eggs were poached in the red wine mixture. This step was a little harder than I expected and also the eggs looked a little strange having been poached in red wine. Nonetheless, all the components of the salad were now ready. The vinaigrette was tossed into the salad and the poached eggs were placed on the top. 

Greens, Pancetta, and Poached Egg Salad

Alright, I want to make note that I don't think this is the prettiest looking dish - that is the red wine poached egg is well kind of ugly. And this may very well be because I didn't poach it quite right but I guarantee you I did the best I could. 


Despite the visual, the salad was amazing. I ate it ravenously - every bite just got better. The shitakes were perfect - cooking them in the pancetta fat was just brilliant. Not only did it retain its meaty texture you got a bit of the salt from the pancetta and the additional pepper. The poached egg on top added a whole new dimension. Once you broke the yellow of the egg into the salad, you were able to sop it all up with the other salad components. And again it was just damn good. 


All in all, I loved the salad. Heck, I made it two nights in a row, I thought it was soo good. Now if only I could get that red wine poached egg to look pretty!

Enjoy!