Portuguese Peas and Eggs
I first learned about Portuguese peas and eggs, or ervilhas com ovos, when I lived in Bermuda. There is a large Portuguese population there, and some of my friends made the dish for me when we got together for brunch. It was an eye opening brunch for me and I became obsessed with how good it was. This was before shakshuka had become so ubiquitous in the United States, so I was unfamiliar with the concept of cooking eggs in a tomato sauce, even though there are many cultures that have similar dishes!
Just because we had this Portuguese peas and eggs for brunch though, it feels like an any-time-of-the-day dish. It’s actually more typically a side dish, but if I have a nice crusty piece of sourdough, this is a main course to me. I am not really a breakfast for dinner guy typically, but I could eat these eggs at any time!
What makes Portuguese peas and eggs for me is the sausage flavor permeating through it. While most recipes use chourico, I used linguica this time around. The sausages are pretty similar and can be used interchangeably. The biggest difference is usually the size, linguica is usually a bit thinner cause it uses hog casing instead of beef casing like chourico. Typically linguica is slightly more mild than chourico as well, so if you want to kick it up a notch, go ahead and use chourico. I like the linguica cause I can use more sausage without it overpowering the dish.
Cook the sausage first
In a pan that can go right into the oven, cook the cut sausage until it starts to brown.
Next add the onion and jalapeno and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
Adding the liquids, peas, and eggs
deglaze the pan with some white wine and scrape it good to pull up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Chourico can easily stick to the bottom of a pan like this, and the wine will help everything come up.
Then add in the tomatoes, peas and herbs and stir to combine. Make little pockets in the tomato and tuck the eggs into the pockets. The portuguese peas and eggs are ready for the oven!
Baking the Portuguese peas and eggs
After you drop in the eggs, pop this into the oven for about 10 – 15 minutes until the eggs are set.
So good! I like how when you cook with linguica you can get really deep flavors in this Portuguese peas and eggs with only about a half hour of work.
Make sure you have some really good bread to eat with this Portuguese peas and eggs. There is a lot of extra sauce and the bread is perfect with it.
So much flavor!
Twists on Portuguese peas and eggs
I mentioned a bunch that you can use chourico in this Portuguese peas and eggs instead of linguica, and in fact it is more common. Really though, you could do any sausage you wanted to put an interesting spin on it! I bet mexican chorizo would be great, and I know Georgina would love it with classic breakfast sausage. You could also make it vegetarian (ovo) with some vegan sausage or mushrooms.
A little parmesan cheese on top would also be pretty great, but I could put parm on anything.
If you are looking for more great brunch ideas with a similar vibe, check out my shakshuka burger, or Red Curry Chilaquiles!
Portuguese Peas and Eggs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound linguica sausage (or portugese chorico) diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 jalapeno seeds removed, diced
- 2 cloves garlic sliced thin
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomato
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 cup fresh peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped scallions plus more for garnish
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 6 eggs
- crusty bread
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Preheat a large oven safe frying pan over medium heat with the olive oil. Add in the linguica. Cook and stir until starting to brown, about 3 minutes.
- Add in the onion and jalapeno and cook 3 more minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for one minute.
- Add in the white wine and scrape the pan to get the browned bits unstuck from the bottom. Stir and combine. Stir in the tomatoes, paprika, peas, scallion, and parsley. Bring to a simmer.
- One by one, crack the eggs into a small bowl, then use a spoon to clear a small spot in the tomato sauce to pour the egg into. Once all the eggs have been added, transfer the pan into the oven.
- Bake about 10 -15 minutes until the eggs are set.
- Remove from oven, serve with the bread and more herbs.
Looks tasty. Very similar to shakshouka. Which I love. So I’ll have to try this. Thanks!
We portuguese have really nice recipes 🙂
Looks bloody gorgeous and delicious….I’m making this tonight and I’ll report back with my results.
Btw – someone who understand that a recipe on the internet without plenty of progress pictures DOES no one any favours…..BRAVO!
1 splash red wine ? One bottle ? Whole ?
Make this all the time, so good!