Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells
Pasta shells filled with spinach and ricotta beneath a tomato sauce.
About 55 min · 540 kcal · 30 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Asparagus and egg tartine with quark and chives
Asparagus and a soft egg over chive quark on sourdough.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm 7 minutes gives a jammy yolk for medium eggs from the fridge
- Photograph the finished tartine
- Time
- About 22 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 420 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 31 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains eggs, gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- sourdough bread. Bread often contains soya and can contain milk, egg or sesame; check the label.
Cooking steps
Bring a small pan of water to a rolling boil, lower in the eggs and cook for exactly 7 minutes.
Cooked when: the whites are completely firm. FoodSafety.gov's endpoint for a whole egg is a firm yolk as well, which takes 10 minutes; at 7 the yolk is still soft, so use pasteurised or lion-marked eggs, and give them the full 10 if you are pregnant, very young, elderly or immunocompromised.
Lift them straight into cold water and leave them there for 2 minutes before peeling. The cold water is what stops them cooking on.
Snap the woody ends off the asparagus. Cook the spears in the oil in a hot griddle or frying pan for 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until tender with some colour.
Mix the quark with the chopped chives and the lemon juice.
Toast the sourdough bread, spread the chive quark thickly, lay the asparagus over and top with the halved eggs.
The useful detail
Seven minutes and straight into cold water gives a yolk set at the edge and still soft in the middle. Thirty seconds either side of that is a different egg.
Make it work for you
One serving is One slice of sourdough with two egg halves and half the asparagus. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Greek yoghurt instead of quark
Looser; drain it for 10 minutes if you want it to sit on toast.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about 2 g more fat.
Green beans instead of asparagus
Firmer and sweeter; give them 6 or 7 minutes.
Per serving: about 15 kcal more, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Rye bread instead of sourdough
Denser and darker, and it holds a wet topping better.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 1 g less protein, about the same fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A lunch where the protein comes from two directions, eggs and quark, so a single slice of bread is enough to build on.
| Energy | 420 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 31 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 39 g |
| of which sugars | 7 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
| Sodium | 820 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eggs | 200 g | FDC 171287Egg, whole, raw, fresh | 286 kcal | 25.1 g |
| asparagus | 250 g | FDC 168389Asparagus, raw | 50 kcal | 5.5 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| quark | 200 g | FDC 172181Cheese, cottage, nonfat, uncreamed, dry, large or small curdFoodData Central has no quark record. Calculated as dry-curd cottage cheese, the closest fresh unripened curd cheese it holds; the two are close in energy and protein, and your pot's label is the exact figure. | 144 kcal | 20.7 g |
| chives | 10 g | FDC 169994Chives, raw | 3 kcal | 0.3 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| sourdough bread | 100 g | FDC 172675Bread, french or vienna (includes sourdough)Calculated with FoodData Central's French or Vienna bread record, which it states includes sourdough. | 272 kcal | 10.8 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 839 kcal | 62.4 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Keep boiled eggs in their shells in the fridge and use within a week. Keep the chive quark covered for 3 to 4 days. Assemble only when you eat.
- Reheating
- Not needed; this is served at room temperature.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Mushroom and lentil cottage pie
A savoury mushroom-lentil filling with a soft potato topping.
About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian