How to add more flavor to your eggs by cooking them in pesto

Three eggs surrounded by pesto in a pan. — You can use pesto instead of standard olive oil to add some extra flavor when cooking your eggs.
LauriPatterson/Getty Images

Pesto offers a savory alternative to using oil when making eggs and helps elevate the flavor profile.
Heat your pesto in a pan before cracking your eggs directly in.
Put your pesto eggs onto a piece of toast for breakfast, or rice for lunch and dinner.
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When frying your morning egg, you typically want to use a few drops of olive oil in your pan to make it crispier. Using pesto as an alternative to oil, however, can help take your breakfast to a whole new territory of texture and taste.

Pesto eggs – as they've been dubbed on TikTok, where the quick and tasty hack was popularized – is a dish that utilizes the oil already in pesto to fry eggs. While eggs alone are savory, bringing in pesto adds bitter, sweet, and piquant notes that round out the flavor profile without too much heavy lifting.

"Pesto is very complex, but well-balanced just by itself. It has a very unique flavor," says Sean Womack, VP of marketing and innovation at Happy Egg Co. "And it's already made. So it's not just like […] you've got to pull a whole bunch of other ingredients out."

How to make pesto eggs

You can make pesto eggs by simply cracking your eggs into a nest of pesto in your pan.
LauriPatterson/Getty Images

Heat your pan. You want to keep it on low heat, medium at the highest. Higher heat has the potential to burn the herbs and nuts in the pesto.
Scoop some pesto into your pan. The amount you use is up to your personal preference - be as generous as you want. "I like a lot of it in there because I want the egg resting in this giant mound of pesto," Womack says.
Let the pesto heat up in the pan for a little bit. Your pesto will sit in your pan as a blob when you initially put it in. Womack says to swirl it around the pan until it begins moving and sliding around the same way a piece of melted butter might. This means the oil in your pesto is heated up. "It's okay to crisp the basil. But if you burn it, you're not gonna like the flavor," Womack says.
Crack your egg directly into the pan. Allow the egg to fry on medium heat until the whites are cooked all the way through and your egg has reached the desired level of doneness. If you want to speed up the cooking process, Womack recommends placing a lid over the egg to help trap the heat and cook the top.

What to serve with pesto eggs

Shot of pesto eggs on toast. — You can put your pesto eggs on top of toast if you're eating them for breakfast, or rice if it's for lunch or dinner.
Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock

Pesto possesses a dynamic flavor profile that carries almost anything it's paired with. But keep in mind what flavors are already present and which ones you can bring in with additional ingredients, says Womack.

For a topping, Womack recommends a chili oil or Tabasco sauce to add a pepper-based spice. As for the base, you can keep it pretty simple.

"It's sort of begging for a piece of toast," says Womack. Toast is a tried and true companion to eggs, and there's certainly no exception when pesto is involved. Layer on a spread like mashed avocado or goat cheese to make things even more decadent. Womack also suggests a bed of rice if you're looking for something better suited for lunch or dinner.

Insider's takeaway

Pesto eggs have fast become a delicious breakfast staple that you can easily whip up in the morning. Simply heat a pan, add however much pesto you prefer, crack your egg in the pesto, and cook. Elevate the flavor of your dish even further by adding a spicy topping and a filling base.

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