EGG OVER TOAST

At the beginning of our marriage, I was eager to learn all of my husbands favorite meals.  For breakfast he loved eggs over toast.  Which consisted of two whole wheat slices of bread toasted with two eggs over easy on top.  I made this for him for years.  As my cooking evolved, I came up with something a bit more sophisticated.  My husband requests this every year on Father’s Day.  It consists of toasted french bread, bacon, heirloom tomatoes, manchego cheese, arugula lightly dressed with sherry vinaigrette, an egg sunny side up, all on top of homemade basil-arugula pesto.  Serve this with coffee and a side of fruit.  Be prepared to make seconds because this is one tasty breakfast.  

Time-30-45 minutes

Servings-1

Ingredients

loaf of french bread

1 egg

2 slices of bacon

2 slices of heirloom tomato

1 cup arugula

thinly sliced manchego cheese

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

salted butter

kosher or sea salt

Ingredients for basil-arugula pesto

4 ounce carton of fresh basil leaves

1 cup of arugula

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation of pesto

Place basil leaves without stems, arugula, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and garlic cloves in food processor.  Pulse a couple times then on low blend ingredients while adding olive oil until it becomes a paste.  Taste the pesto for seasoning.  You may not need the salt.  I prefer my pesto chunky to use the remaining pesto later in a pasta dish.

Prep the individual components

Cook bacon in skillet to desired crispiness.

Slice two pieces of tomato to desired thickness.

Thinly slice manchego cheese enough to cover bread.

Slice french bread to desired thickness.

Melt salted butter and slather each side of french bread and toast on griddle.

Make vinaigrette with sherry vinegar and olive oil.

Lightly dress arugula in a bowl with vinaigrette.

Add butter to skillet and make your egg however you like it.

Building your breakfast

Slather the bottom of your plate with pesto.  Place toasted bread on top.  Then add manchego cheese, bacon, tomato slices, arugula, and egg.  Finish with a pinch of sea salt or kosher salt on the egg.  Enjoy!

Cook’s Note

1.  You can make more of the individual components to make more servings.  You will have plenty of bread, pesto and dressed arugula for more servings.

2.  Dress your arugula right before making eggs because you don’t want the arugula to wilt.

3.  Store bought pesto will cut your cooking time.

4.  Serrano ham, crispy prosciutto, turkey bacon, and veggie bacon are great substitutes for bacon.