Eggs Florentine

Eggs Florentine is the brunch dish of poached eggs set on a bed of wilted spinach on a toasted English muffin and covered in hollandaise, the vegetarian member of the eggs Benedict family in which spinach takes the place of ham or bacon. The name follows the French kitchen convention in which "à la florentine" means served with spinach, a usage that goes back to the court cooks of Catherine de' Medici and has nothing to do with any dish eaten in Florence. Older French versions sit the eggs on creamed spinach and finish them with a cheese-enriched Mornay sauce under the grill; the hollandaise-and-muffin form is American, a twentieth-century hotel and diner adaptation, and it is now the standard reading of the name on brunch menus from New York to Sydney, usually offered alongside Benedict and the smoked-salmon Royale.