Eggs over Bacon-Infused Croutons

Dear Devon,

If you haven’t already guessed, one of my biggest anxieties is an empty kitchen. Normally, my kitchen is never in such a barebones state that this should be a worry, but a fridge without eggs or milk is empty by my standards. Given the Spanish penchant for holidays, I am never sure when the market will be opened or closed. I had planned a short midweek vacation before the holidays. I did a whole round of grocery shopping before leaving just to be safe.


My list included fresh bread. Nothing beats the smell or taste of fresh bread. But, unfortunately, it has drawbacks, namely preservation. Generally, this is not a problem, but this time I was gone for three days, leaving my bread on the counter. I returned home to a rock hard loaf. I now understand how recipes like bread pudding, croutons, and panzanella originated.

I pulled together a quick breakfast, by frying cubes of the hardened bread in a bit of bacon-infused olive oil. Onions and rosemary were tossed in for some extra flavor and a bit of warmth. Crispy fried eggs topped this savory mountain of old bread. I was careful to keep the yolk loose. I wanted the broken, gooey yolks to ooze into the crannies of the hardened bread. It’s a little messy but definitely worth the clean up.



Eggs over Bacon-Infused Croutons
(serves 2)

½ loaf of stale bread
2 slices of thick bacon
1 small onion, sliced
1 sprig dried rosemary
1/3 cup to ½ cup olive oil
2 eggs

With a heavy knife, dice hard bread. Be careful with your fingers. I found cutting through the bread a bit scary. Fry chopped bacon in a sauté pan. Remove the browned pieces of bacon from the pan and set aside. Add a touch more olive oil, about ¼ cup of fat, including bacon fat. Gently fry cubed bread in oil. Sprinkle in dried, crushed rosemary leaves. Drizzle with olive oil as the bread cooks to encourage even browning and flavoring. The bread will soften as it soaks up the fat and eventually begin to toast up into crunchy morsels. Add sliced onion and cook until translucent. At the end, toss in the bacon. Remove the entire mixture to an awaiting bowl. In the same pan, fry eggs sunny side up.

To serve, scoop out a generous spoonfuls of toasted bread mixture onto a plate or bowl.

Note: I avoided salting this dish, as the bacon is already quite salty.