Italian Poached Eggs with Creamy Polenta and Gorgonzola Fondue | Uova in Camicia con Polenta e Gorgonzola
Uova in Camicia con Polenta e Gorgonzola is a Lombard supper rather than a restaurant invention. A bowl of soft yellow polenta, a ladle of melted gorgonzola dolce in the middle of it, and a poached egg on top so the yolk runs into both. Nothing about it is difficult. Everything about it is timing, because the polenta wants three quarters of an hour and the egg wants three minutes.
The method here keeps the farmhouse proportions and tightens the technique around them. The cornmeal cooks in salted water with milk added late, which softens the grain without flattening the corn. The cheese is melted away from the heat so it never breaks. The eggs go into water held well below a simmer with a little vinegar. Browned sage butter goes over the top, and that is the whole dish.
Yield: 4 servings. Prep: 15 minutes. Cook: 50 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 5 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto, or a single course supper. Region: Lombardy, the plain between Milan and Bergamo.
The Story
Gorgonzola takes its name from a town on the eastern edge of Milan, on the old road towards Bergamo, and the cheese was born from the animals that stopped there. Herds coming down from the alpine summer pastures in autumn were milked at the end of a long day of walking, and the cheese made from that evening milk was called stracchino, from stracco, the Lombard word for tired. One of those stracchini grew blue veins in the damp cellars of the plain. Today most DOP wheels are made around Novara and Pavia rather than in Gorgonzola itself.
Maize arrived in the Lombard countryside in the sixteenth century and within two hundred years had pushed aside millet, buckwheat and chestnut flour as the staple of the poor. For many families the copper paiolo over the fire produced the whole day of eating, and what went with the polenta depended on the cellar: a spoonful of milk, a cheese too strong to sell, a salted fish divided between six. Pellagra spread through that countryside precisely because maize was eaten almost alone, which is worth remembering now that polenta is served as comfort.
The three elements meet naturally. The egg was the one protein a farmhouse could always produce, the gorgonzola was the strong cheese of the same plain, and the polenta was already in the pot. Gorgonzola dolce, aged around two months and soft enough to spread with a knife, is the right cheese here: the piccante, left twice as long, is too salty and too sharp for a sauce a runny yolk must travel through. The dish survives in osterie across the Bergamasca and the Brianza, usually with no name at all.
Ingredients
For the polenta
Stone ground yellow polenta, medium grind, 1 1/2 cups (250 g)
Water, 6 cups (1.4 L)
Whole milk, 1 cup (240 ml)
Fine sea salt, 2 tsp (12 g)
Unsalted butter, 3 tbsp (42 g)
Grana Padano, finely grated, 1/3 cup (35 g)
For the gorgonzola fondue
Gorgonzola dolce DOP, rind removed, 7 oz (200 g)
Heavy cream, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Whole milk, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
For the poached eggs
Very fresh large eggs, 4
Water, 8 cups (1.9 L)
White wine vinegar, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g)
For finishing
Unsalted butter, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Fresh sage leaves, 8
Walnut halves, toasted and broken, 2 tbsp (15 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Flaky sea salt, offered separately
Preparation
Salting the water and raining in the cornmeal
Bring the water to a rolling boil in a heavy pot of at least 4 quarts (4 L) and add the salt before anything else. Cornmeal hydrating in salted water is seasoned right through each particle. Set a whisk turning to build a slow vortex and rain the polenta in, a thin continuous stream and never a poured handful. Whisk hard for two minutes, the only window in which lumps form.
Cooking the grain to full hydration
Drop the heat until the surface moves with a slow bubble and change the whisk for a wooden spoon. Cook 40 to 45 minutes, stirring thoroughly every three or four minutes and reaching the corners and the base. From minute 25 add the milk in three additions, each absorbed before the next. It is ready when a little pressed against the roof of the mouth is smooth and smells sweet. Thickness is not the test: undercooked polenta can be stiff and still gritty.
Finishing the polenta with butter and Grana
Off the heat, beat in the butter in two pieces, then the Grana Padano, until the surface turns glossy and the polenta pulls from the side of the pot. Correct the salt only now, with the cheese in. The consistency wanted falls slowly from a raised spoon and settles level within a few seconds. If it stands in a peak, whisk in boiling water 2 tbsp (30 ml) at a time.
Melting the gorgonzola into a stable fondue
Warm the cream and milk in a small saucepan until the surface trembles, then take the pan off the heat before the cheese goes near it. Break the gorgonzola up, discard the rind, and add it in three lots, stirring each until it disappears. Residual heat is all that is needed, and a fondue taken back to a simmer separates within a minute. Finish with white pepper and no salt.
Poaching the eggs at 180°F
Fill a wide shallow pan about 10 inches (25 cm) across and bring the water to 180°F (82°C), where the surface shivers and no bubble rises. Add the vinegar and the teaspoon of salt. Crack each egg into a cup first: a thin watery white belongs to an old egg and will never hold a shape. Slide them in one at a time from the lip of the cup and leave them alone for thirty seconds. Poach 3 minutes for a fluid yolk and a set white. Lift each out, drain it on a folded cloth, and trim any ragged skirt with scissors.
Browning the butter with sage
Melt the finishing butter in a small pan over medium heat and let it run past the foam until the solids on the bottom turn the colour of hazelnut skin and the smell changes from dairy to nutty, about 2 minutes. Add the sage, count to ten while it crisps, and pour the butter straight into a cold bowl. A hot pan carries browned butter to burnt in under a minute.
Plating
Warm the bowls properly. A wide shallow bowl straight from the cupboard pulls enough heat out of soft polenta in thirty seconds to change its consistency. Ladle about 3/4 cup (180 ml) into each and turn the bowl in the hand so the polenta spreads into an even round with a shallow depression in the middle, stopping short of the rim.
Spoon the fondue into that depression, roughly 3 tbsp (45 ml) per bowl, and let it find its own edges. Set the egg directly on the fondue and slightly off centre, so the yolk sits over cheese rather than bare cornmeal. Spoon the sage butter over and around it, scatter the walnuts at the outer edge, and grind black pepper over the egg alone.
Send the bowls immediately. The point of the dish is that the yolk is broken at the table into a fondue still fluid and a polenta still soft. Put no salt on the egg: the gorgonzola and the Grana carry more than enough between them, and a small dish of flaky salt offered separately is the only concession worth making.
Professional Technique
The fondue is the technical heart of this recipe and the only part that can fail outright. Gorgonzola dolce is roughly half fat on a dry basis and its protein network has already been broken down by ripening, which is why it cannot be heated like a hard cheese. Cream is added for function rather than richness: its milk proteins give the melted cheese something to hold on to, and its dispersed fat globules stop the fat released by the gorgonzola from pooling. Above about 160°F (71°C) the structure lets go and stirring will not reverse it.
Poaching is the second control and it depends on the egg more than on the cook. A fresh egg has a high proportion of thick albumen, a gel held together by ovomucin fibres, and that is what wraps the yolk in a neat oval. As an egg ages the white loses water and its pH rises, the thick albumen thins, and the same egg in the same pan spreads into a ragged cloud. Vinegar pushes the outermost proteins to coagulate on contact, and 180°F (82°C) does the rest.
The third piece of technique is the timing. Polenta is the only component that cannot be hurried and the only one that tolerates holding, so it starts first and stays covered. The fondue is made while it cooks. The eggs and the sage butter are the last four minutes. Reverse that and something is cold or broken.
Texture and Moisture Control
Polenta keeps absorbing water after the pot leaves the stove. Starch granules swollen during cooking go on taking up free liquid as the temperature falls, and a polenta that looked correct in the pot can be a stiff mass ten minutes later. Finish it deliberately looser than the consistency wanted on the plate and correct with boiling water, never cold, since cold water interrupts gelatinisation and leaves a slack watery band through the mixture.
The fondue has the opposite problem: it tightens as it cools and breaks as it warms. Hold it at around 140°F (60°C), warm to a finger and nowhere near a simmer, covered, over a pan of hot water rather than direct heat. If it thickens past pouring, loosen it with a tablespoon of warm milk stirred from the centre outward. One already showing beads of oil can sometimes be recovered with a splash of cold cream whisked in off the heat.
The egg carries more water than it looks as if it does, and that water goes straight into the fondue. Four of them will visibly thin the cheese in the bowl. Rest each on a folded cloth for a few seconds and turn it once.
Professional Mise en Place
One long preparation and three short ones, and the short ones all land in the last five minutes. Set two burners side by side and do not start the eggs until the bowls are warm.
Equipment and tools
Heavy pot of 4 quarts (4 L) or more, thick base
Balloon whisk for the first two minutes, wooden spoon for the rest
Small saucepan for the fondue and a bowl to hold it over hot water
Wide pan of 10 inches (25 cm) for poaching, plus a probe thermometer
Slotted spoon, cups for cracking the eggs, scissors, four warm bowls
Prepared ahead
Gorgonzola broken up and derinded, held cold, on the day
Walnuts toasted and broken, up to 3 days ahead in a sealed jar
Sage picked, washed and dried completely, on the day
Grana Padano grated and covered, on the day
Kettle filled and boiled for correcting the polenta
Service setup
Polenta covered on the lowest heat, stirred every few minutes
Fondue at around 140°F (60°C) over hot water, with milk beside it
Poaching pan holding at 180°F (82°C), vinegar and salt in
Bowls warming, pepper mill and flaky salt on the pass
Sage butter made last and poured into a cold bowl
Chef Tips
Buy the polenta from somewhere that sells a lot of it. Stone ground cornmeal keeps the germ, the germ holds oil, and that oil goes rancid on a warm shelf within months. A bag sitting since last winter tastes faintly of cardboard however carefully it is cooked.
Test the eggs first. Lower one into a glass of cold water: a very fresh egg lies flat on the bottom, a week old egg tilts, and one that floats has an air cell large enough that the white will spread. Poach the flat ones and keep the rest for pasta.
Hold the polenta on a heat diffuser if the stove has one aggressive burner. Direct flame under a covered pot builds a dry crust on the base within ten minutes, and once that crust breaks into the mixture it will not dissolve again.
If gorgonzola dolce is hard to find, use another mild young blue with a soft paste rather than taking the piccante and taming it with more cream. Extra cream dilutes the sauce and it loses what it is there for. It should taste of gorgonzola with a little cream in it, never the reverse.
Common Mistakes
Boiling the fondue. Blue cheese held above about 160°F (71°C) releases its fat and drops its solids, and the sauce becomes oil with grains in it. Take the cream off the heat before the cheese goes in and hold the fondue at around 140°F (60°C), never on a live burner.
Judging the polenta by thickness. Cornmeal thickens long before its particles are hydrated, so a stiff pot can still be raw in the middle of every grain. Taste at 30 minutes and again at 40, and keep going until nothing gritty remains.
Poaching in simmering water. Rising bubbles tear the white apart and leave a ragged cloud around a solid core. Hold the pan at 180°F (82°C), where the surface shivers but nothing breaks it, and use a thermometer.
Salting the polenta at the end. Salt added to finished polenta sits on the outside of the grains and reads as sharp rather than seasoned. It goes into the water before the cornmeal.
Leaving the sage butter in the pan. A small pan holds enough heat to take browned butter to burnt after the burner is off, and that bitterness runs through the whole bowl. Pour it out the moment the sage stops spitting.
Wine Pairing
Franciacorta DOCG: The most complete answer here and a Lombard one, made a short drive from where this dish belongs. The mousse and the high acidity scour the butterfat of the fondue and the yolk off the palate between spoonfuls. Long lees ageing leaves a toasted bread and hazelnut note that runs alongside the browned butter and the walnuts. Choose a Brut rather than an Extra Brut: a few grams of sugar sit better against the salt of a blue cheese.
Lugana DOC: Turbiana grown on the clay of the southern shore of Lake Garda, a white with real weight to it. There is enough texture to sit under a cheese sauce without vanishing and enough citrus acidity to keep the bowl from feeling heavy by the third mouthful. The bitter almond note on its finish picks up the walnuts. Serve at 50°F (10°C), not colder, or the body that makes it work goes numb.
Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG: A high acid Piedmontese white from the moraine hills north of Turin and the sharpest knife in this selection. Its lean green apple fruit and mineral bite cut through the gorgonzola without trying to match it for flavour, which is the right strategy against a cheese this assertive. It carries almost no sweetness and no oak, so nothing competes with the sage.
Barbera d'Asti DOCG: The red that works with egg yolk, because it has acidity in abundance and very little tannin. Tannic wines turn metallic against a runny yolk and Barbera does not carry enough of them to cause that. Its dark cherry fruit and brisk finish handle the salt of the blue cheese and the fat of the butter at once. Take an unoaked bottling and serve it at 60°F (16°C).
Storage & Reheating
The assembled bowl does not keep, but two of its three components do. Cooled polenta holds in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and sets firm as it chills, which is normal and reversible. The fondue keeps in a sealed jar for up to 2 days. Poached eggs hold in cold water, covered, for 24 hours and no longer.
To bring the polenta back, break it into a saucepan with 1/4 cup (60 ml) boiling water for every 1 cup (240 g), cover, and warm over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, whisking hard once it softens. It passes through a lumpy stage and comes out smooth. Rewarm the fondue over hot water and stop the moment it flows, since one reheated over direct heat splits and cannot be rescued. Drop held eggs into water at 150°F (65°C) for 45 seconds.
Freeze neither the fondue nor the eggs: the emulsion separates on thawing and a poached egg turns to rubber. Firm leftover polenta freezes well. Spread it in a tray 3/4 inch (2 cm) deep, chill until solid, cut it into squares and freeze for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings and including all the butter, cheese and walnuts:
Calories: 720 kcal
Total Fat: 44 g
Saturated Fat: 24 g
Trans Fat: 0.8 g
Unsaturated Fat: 17 g
Cholesterol: 285 mg
Sodium: 1420 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 55 g
Fiber: 4 g
Total Sugars: 6 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 26 g
Lactose: 4 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, choline, zinc
These figures are estimates. Sodium moves most, since gorgonzola and Grana Padano are both salty. Allergens present: milk and egg. The dish contains no wheat, but cornmeal is often milled where wheat is handled, so anyone avoiding gluten should check the bag.
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