Pasta with spinach and century egg / salted egg

This happens often enough. While writing or preparing one recipe, I would get ideas for a another recipe using similar ingredients.

Usually, I would come up with an Asian version of an Italian or American pasta recipe. But here, it is a Chinese version of a Filipino recipe!

Sometimes, I draw ideas and inspiration from other recipes as well. In this case, it came from the recipe for a creamed spinach pasta sauce.

The background to this recipe is this...

As I mentioned in the recipe on itlot na maalat, the Filipinos usually eat itlog with fresh tomatoes whereas the Chinese eat salted egg either plain, as an accompaniment to rice porridge, or cooked with spinach.

This spinach dish often includes fresh eggs as well as century and salted eggs and it is usually prepared as a watery dish - not quite a soup, but with a bit of a soupy sauce.

That got me thinking... why not puree the spinach to form a creamy sauce, and then add in the pieces of preserved eggs? It's similar to the creamed spinach pasta dish, except that I left out the cream as I don't think cream would fit in well here.

Pasta with spinach, salted egg and century egg

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons peanut or other cooking oil
• 500 grams fresh spinach
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 cup water or dried anchovy (ikan bilis) stock
• 2 fresh egg yolks
  
  
• 1 salted egg
• 1 century egg
  
  
• 300 grams dried pasta, cooked according to instructions

Method:

1. Heat oil in a heavy pan. Add onion, garlic and salt, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or longer, until onion turns soft and translucent.
   
   
2. Wash and roughly chop the spinach, saving a few leaves for garnish. Add spinach to the pan and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Do not cover, as doing so would cause the spinach to lose its green color.
   
   
3. While spinach is cooking, boil the water or dried anchony / ikan bilis stock and then add to the spinach. Note: Dried anchovy, called ikan bilis in the Malay language, is widely used for soups in Southeast Asia. It is also sold as a stock cube (unfortunately often containing MSG), in which case about 1/4 cube would be sufficient here.
   
   
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly and blend in a food processor.
   
   
5. Before serving, simmer the pureed spinach gently - do not heat too strongly or the egg yolks will curdle. Serve over cooked pasta with pieces of century and salted eggs.

Notes:

1. If using raw salted egg - the Chinese type that comes covered with black ash - remove the ash and boil the eggs for about 10 minutes. If using itlog na maalat or other ready-cooked salted egg, just remove the shell. Cut into small chunks.
   
   
2. Century egg des not require any cooking. Just remove the outer covering of clay, ash, etc. Then remove the shell and cut into small chunks.
   
   
3. You may also add pieces of century and salted eggs and turn this recipe into a pasta century egg salad.