Last month, Lizzo’s “nature cereal” created a frenzy online. But there’s a new breakfast in town. A recipe for “pesto eggs” has gone viral on TikTok as a basil-loaded twist on an old classic.
TikTok users create the dish by warming pesto in a small pan and then cracking eggs into the pan once the pesto is hot. The cooking method replaces oil or butter with pesto and infuses the cheesy, herbaceous elements with the eggs.
The recipe can be made with the chef’s choice of eggs: scrambled, sunny side up, or over-easy.
Amy Wilichowski, @amywilichowski on TikTok, first posted a video showing how she makes pesto eggs at the end of April. And people love it.
The video now has over 9.9 million views and 1.3 million likes, and Wilichowski describes herself as “the pesto egg girl.”
Wilichowski told the Daily Dot she was surprised by the successful of the video.
“I totally wasn’t expecting it to go viral, but it made me so happy,” Wilichowski said in an interview with the Daily Dot. “I’ve been cooking my eggs in pesto for over a year now, so I’m pumped that so many people now know about how incredible the combo is!”
Many fans of the dish identified the pesto as serving a double purpose of flavoring the eggs while adding cooking fat.
“This tastes amazing and you don’t have to use any oil because the pesto keeps the egg from sticking to the pan,” one user explained.
For fans of pesto, it’s an easy way to bring the jarred or homemade sauce to the plate during breakfast.
“Bestie I could literally eat pesto out of the jar this is perfect,” one user commented.
In Wilichowski’s video, she adds the pesto eggs to toast with ricotta cheese and avocado, then tops the eggs with red pepper flakes and a drizzle of honey.
As more viewers shared the video on TikTok, Wilichowski created two follow-up videos explaining that she uses Trader Joe’s sourdough bread for the toast and makes her own pesto from home.
On TikTok, creators added their own twists on Wilichowski’s recipe. New variations include homemade vegan pesto, substituting mozzarella or goat cheese for the ricotta cheese, drizzling the eggs with honey, and cooking the dish entirely in the oven.
“Try pesto egg on croissant with ricotta its chefs kiss,” another user wrote.
Other users saw Wilichowski’s creation as an ode Dr. Suess’ Green Eggs and Ham. The whites of the fried eggs turn subtly green from the pesto, and scrambled eggs with pesto take on even more of a green hue.
Captain American also claims to be a fan of the dish. In a 2019 interview with Men’s Journal, Chris Evans explained that while he doesn’t cook often, his favorite thing to make is pesto eggs.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had pesto eggs, but if you haven’t, you’re missing out,” Evans said.
Users on Wilichowski’s video mentioned Evans in the comments inciting more hysterics. “POV: I’m only thinking about Chris Evans because his ‘signature dish’ is pesto eggs,” one user wrote.
“I’m only ever thinking about Chris Evans,” Wilichowski replied.
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