Cooking Eggs in This Popular Sauce Will Upgrade Your Breakfast in the Most Delicious Way
We all know pesto tastes great on pasta, but a new trend has people popping open jars or whipping up their own batch of the savory green stuff for breakfast. More specifically, using it instead of regular oil or butter to fry up eggs in what is aptly being called “pesto eggs.”
The simple recipe started making the rounds on social media when a woman named Amy Wilichowski shared a now-viral video about it on TikTok. After being viewed more than 11 million times, she’s also certainly earned the right to describe herself as “pesto egg girl” in her bio.
Take a look to see how easy it is:
Cooking eggs in pesto makes sense considering olive oil is one of the main ingredients. It also helps cut down on the need to prep any herbs or extra seasonings yourself, because they’re already in the sauce. Traditional pesto alla genovese (which is the green kind most of us refer to just as “pesto”) calls for basil, pine nuts, a hard cheese like pecorino, garlic, and salt. It’s pretty easy to make yourself and you can even mix up things up with different nuts and cheeses, like our almond-based pesto recipe.
When I finally got around to trying the pesto egg phenomenon, I used the jarred stuff from my grocery store (Buy at Walmart, $5.74). It’s definitely a bit more expensive than most marinaras, but I usually keep some in the pantry for those times I’m not in the mood for red sauce.
I also learned something interesting while Googling “pesto eggs” to find Wilichowski’s original video: She isn’t the first person to rave about the dish. Chris Evans — yes, Captain America himself — told Men’s Journal back in 2019, “I don’t know if you’ve ever had pesto eggs, but if you haven’t, you’re missing out.” We can only assume he was referring to a similar recipe, if not the exact same one.
You likely won’t be surprised to learn both Evans and Wilichowski are absolutely correct: Cooking eggs in pesto is a scrumptious way to kick up your breakfast game! I fried mine like Wilichowski does in her video with just enough pesto to coat the bottom of the pan before cracking in a couple eggs. I didn’t follow her steps for layering the eggs on top of avocado and ricotta, but they still tasted great on toast with chili flakes and salt.
And, OK, maybe I closed my eyes and pretended they were actually prepared for me by Evans while I took a few bites. But even without any daydreaming, pesto eggs are an incredibly tasty way to start your day. Honestly, why have we been reserving this savory, herby flavor for just evening meals all this time?
As Wilichowski points out, it can work just as well with other egg preparations, like a scramble. People have also been riffing on the idea by using other oil-based sauces, such as a nice spicy chili crisp (Buy at Walmart, $2.96).
Give it a try the next time you’re whipping up eggs and you might find yourself stocking up on pesto and other oil-based sauces to easily boost the flavor of all your breakfasts!
