Marco Giugliano’s “Soft egg,” which is on the menu at Miami restaurant dōma, is based off the memory of a recipe from his youth. Born and raised in Piazzolla di Nola, near Naples, he grew up by gathering eggs and vegetables from the family farm.
There, his mother would make him a soft egg dish that inspired this more contemporary take in which the chef makes a parmigiano foam using sour cream and butter, and uses both roasted and fried eggplant for texture. Sauteed tomato jam and an egg baked at a low temperature complete the dish.
He developed the dish when taking the helm at dōma in Miami's booming Wynwood district. It's become a favorite on the menu.
“I took the essence of my mother’s recipe, with fresh ingredients, and add a new technique to it," Giugliano says. “This is what I call contemporary Italian cuisine.”
Soft egg
Serves 4
Ingredients:
One eggplant to roast
6 oz. eggplant for the chips
A large egg
14 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano “Vacca rossa”
7 oz. sour cream
2.4 oz. butter
1 oz. powder sugar
Half an onion
1 Tbsp. honey
1 “Piennolo” tomatoes jam
3.5 oz semolina flour
One clove of garlic, minced
Olive oil
Soy sauce
Salt
Basil
Method
Roast the eggplant in the oven (350°F) for 20 minutes without taking out the skin. Roast it with soy, salt, basil, and garlic. Then, take out the skin and let the eggplant dry for about 20 minutes in the oven.
Cook the egg at 150°F for about 45 minutes.
Reduce the parmigiano, sour cream, and butter before putting them in the whipping siphon to create a foam.
Sauté the tomato jam with half onion and garlic; cook it for about 20 minutes and add the powder sugar, honey. Blend and sift it.
When the mix is cold, whip it like a mayonnaise with olive oil and basil.
Eggplant chips as topping are made by cutting the eggplant in thin slices and by dipping them in the semolina flour before frying for 4/5 minutes.
Serve with some fresh basil and olive oil on top.