Baked Eggs with Sausage and Mushroom

Great Breakfast alternative / addition to brunch. Amazingly good. I didnt have fennel sausages so I used some of the Tesco's finest range. Your local butcher probably have their own gourmet sausages. Pork goes well with fennel so even plain pork sausages would do.

Ingredients

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pound fennel sausage, casings removed
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• Kosher salt
• 4 sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 8 eggs
• 6 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

Directions

Special equipment: 8 (6-ounce) ramekins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil, add the garlic cloves and the crushed red pepper and bring to a medium heat. When the garlic has become golden brown and very aromatic, remove it and discard, it has fulfilled its garlic destiny. Add the sausage and brown.

Once, nicely browned, add the mushrooms and season with kosher salt. When the mushrooms have softened, add in the sage and white wine. Cook until the wine has almost been absorbed. Turn off the heat and reserve.

Brush 8 individual ramekins with olive oil. Divide the sausage mixture equally among the ramekins and press gently into the bottom. Top each with an egg. Sprinkle each egg with a couple drops of olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Sprinkle each egg lightly with Gruyere cheese and bake until the cheese is brown and bubbly and the egg whites are cooked and the yolks are still runny, about 5 minutes

Serve with grilled bread rubbed with garlic, if desired.

Now thats an egg!