By Jimi Hilton, Food Editor to Currents Magazines

The most incredible, versatile and edible ingredient known to man...the egg - or zygote

As regular readers know, we've been slowly working our way through a mostly-alphabetical and mostly seasonally-oriented list of ingredients...mainly for the fun of it.

This column was supposed to run in the early-Spring edition, for reasons that should be obvious, if one thinks of the big symbolic and culinary roles the egg plays during the Passover and Easter season - not to mention the seemingly weird secular role the egg plays during Easter - which gets this totally non-Christian name from the very ancient pagan goddess of fertility, Oestre. Her symbol IS the egg ...and her name gave rise to words like estrogen and oestrus...and her ancient cult rituals gave rise to all those colored eggs, "Oestre baskets" - and to all those famously fertile bunny rabbits too...So now you know where they come in.

But we digress; it's still Spring - the time when egg-laying goes into high gear as the days grow longer and the weather grows warmer - and it's never too late to extol the truly magical qualities of the EGG...and to urge readers to revel in some very special seasonal eggs, while the season's in. (It's also a good excuse to be sure we ultimately fill out our entire alphabetical list, with an ingredient ending in Z...because zabaglione (also made with nothing but egg and Marsala wine) is a dish and not an ingredient.

Let's start with the basics: the egg is - by far - the most basic, the most versatile, the most necessary, the most magical - and probably the quickest and easiest way to make a meal that's known to man. If all you have in the fridge is an egg, you can make a decent meal. If you have a bit of cheese, or a bit of ham, or some leftover spinach from the night before, you can make a better meal. The egg is, in our opinion, the world's number-one comfort food: When you can eat nothing else, a soft-boiled or poached, or coddled, or lightly scrambled or delicately shirred egg can make your day a better one...not to mention what a creamy egg custard can do... if someone makes you one.

Think of the magic that's worked with oil and lemon juice, which ordinarily won't mix, but which, when slowly whisked with egg yolk emulsifies into a homemade mayonnaise...or of the equally magical way beaten egg whites serve as ‘legal-leavening' for Passover desserts...or can be turned into fluffy or crispy meringues. A cake without eggs? You've got to be kidding! And a yeast bread with eggs? It seems to be ten times lighter - even while it seems to have more heft, texture and depth of flavor.

Before we leave the subject of chicken eggs and move on to more exotic zygotes, let me share a five-minute, totally satisfying and totally off-the shelf comfort food I fixed for two a few weeks ago, when no one felt like shopping or cooking: Pasta with egg...

1. Boil some water and throw in some salt and some linguini or spaghetti: Everybody has these two ‘ingredients' on the shelf, I trust.

1. Heat some butter or olive oil, or a mixture if your larder is down to near zero, in a small pan...and add some freshly minced garlic. Meanwhile, bring an egg to room temperature in a coffee cup of warm water. (If you don't have oil and garlic on your shelf and an egg in the fridge you are really in desperate trouble. Stop reading this and get help immediately).

1. Crack the egg and beat it lightly with a fork. Then, working quickly, drain the pasta and transfer it to a suitable bowl (ideally one you've heated up with some hot water). Pour the oil/garlic in, quickly toss with your fork; then drizzle the egg over all, and gently toss some more to combine and to lightly cook the egg.

1. Serve the pasta, allowing each diner to use the peppermill, a cheese grater and whatever Italian cheese you have in the fridge - ideally parmesan, but pecorino's ok too - to their heart's content. (If you have none of these ingredients on hand, please go back to instruction #2 for advice on what to do).

Now for some slightly more exotic ‘seasonal' eggs: In case you may not know it, we are coming close to the end of the shad and shad roe season. Don't let it pass without having some of both. Properly boned and properly cooked shad (carefully and lightly, please) is one of the most delicate and delicious fishes one will ever eat. Many consider the roe to be an even greater delicacy. (Others find it dry, grainy and totally unpalatable. This is because it too needs to be cooked carefully, with a light hand, and never overcooked, as it so often is: We like to ‘poach it' in butter, taking care to remove it while the roe is still soft and the individual eggs are barely cooked, because they will continue to cook on the way to the plate). Spring is also a time when herring and smelts are ‘running' as they rush upriver to spawn. In the old days, one would never buy a fresh herring or smelt without the roe, much less cook and serve it. Today, you need to look around to find a fish market that's able to find fish with the roe intact - and to conserve it during the cleaning process, but it will be well worth you while to do so.

Another delicacy in the fish egg department that's suddenly coming into vogue is scallop roe: Ironically, in the old days this roe was almost always discarded - along with the other innards, which, by the way, are just as edible as the much coveted clam bellies...and maybe more so. It just shows to go you how food fads - and food taboos too - tend to come and go over time, and how mindlessly we follow such trends. The scallop-roe craze has one very good things going for it, aside from saving what was once wasted, and aside from allowing people to discover what a delicious thing had been so long discarded as ‘disgusting': It's been forcing people not to overcook their scallops, which makes them ten times tastier and ten times tenderer. The bad thing, however, is that we're now paying three times more for scallops that come with the formerly disgusting ‘junk' than we did for scallops with the junk removed. Go figure.

Thoughts of fish eggs turning you off? Shame on you, we say. Just as with that scallop roe, it's all in your mind. Would you really pass on a portion of top quality caviar? Have you tried some salted salmon roe with your bagels and lox, or on a bit of brown bread with some cream cheese? Among the most delicious and delightful eggs of all, we'd say.

Pop open some bubbly too, and Have a Happy Spring!