On Saturday night, Dominic and I tried Beast and the Hare for dinner. It was, in a word, extraordinary, not to mention an incredibly good deal, considering the quality of the food, the high level of personalized service and the fact that we ordered a bottle of wine to go with our meal.

The first course we ordered was a plate of deviled eggs. Chilled, hard-cooked egg whites were filled with creamy, vaguely chili-scented yolk filling and topped with the tiniest, most perfect cubes of pickled beet. The rest of our meal was delicious (rocket salad with peaches and ricotta, a whole roasted fish for 2 over creamy white beans), but the eggs, though quite simple, stood out to me as the very best part of it.

Wanting to use up my homemade crème fraiche and having a gorgeous, sweet-smelling red bell pepper from Saturday morning’s visit to the farmers market, I got to puttering and this is what I came up with. The creamy filling, deepened by the rich tomato paste almost tastes like it contains butter. It’s difficult to not eat these by the platter.

Note: When garnishing the eggs, try to think of each one as an individual art project. Use a very light touch and pay attention to detail—it will pay off in the final result.

• ingredients
• 6 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and halved lengthwise $1.50 for 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup crème fraiche (or sour cream) $4 for 2 cups
• 2 tbsp tomato paste $2.50 for a 3-oz. tube
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish Pantry
• few dashes of cayenne pepper, plus more for garnish $1.50 for 1 oz.
• salt and pepper to taste Pantry
• 1 or 2 strips of red bell pepper, cut into a tiny dice $1 for a whole bell pepper

Total Cost of Ingredients: $10.50

Directions

Using the back of a fork, mash the egg yolks until all the lumps have been broken up. Stir in the crème fraiche or sour cream, tomato paste, olive oil, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth and completely combined.

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the yolk mixture into a plastic sandwich bag. Snip a 1/4” off of one of the corners of the bag and push the yolk mixture down, so you have a makeshift pastry bag (or use a regular pastry bag if you have one). Pipe the yolk mixture into the empty egg whites neatly and decoratively. Chill until ready to serve or continue with garnishing (if you’re going to serve them immediately following garnishing).

Just before serving, garnish each deviled egg with the following, in the order listed: a few drops of olive oil, a tiny dollop of crème fraiche or sour cream, a tiny dash of cayenne pepper and 1 or 2 pieces bell pepper.

Makes 12 deviled eggs.